Within the Water
by MoonJasmine
Summary: There is an addition to the circle of Death Eaters. Voldemort is the key to her past, present, and future.
1. Prologue

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Prologue

The candles flickered in the dark room that embraced the beautiful couple. The silk sheets lay on the marble floor that cooled down the heated atmosphere. Her long buttery curls were spread upon the pillow, while she gently placed her head upon his shoulder. Her rosy lips placed soft kisses on his smooth skin, as he played with a strand of her hair.

His mind was not with her at the moment. He was thinking about what will follow.

"What have I done?" He thought. "I gave her away to my enemy. She's lost to me forever!" His mind was raising.

"What will he do to me, to her?" He continued thinking. "I couldn't hold away from her. It was an exact order, and I disobeyed it!"

"What's this?" He heard her sweet voice, as she raised his hand. The soft light that came from the candle besides the bed illuminated her curved body. She raised upon one elbow to examine the design upon his hand.

"It's nothing!" He quickly retrieved his palm from her. Their eyes met.

"Are you a Death Eater?" She whispered unable to speak any louder. He lowered his eyes and kept silent. She jumped off his bed and placed her feet upon the freezing floor. Reaching for her dress, she spotted a red rose slowly appearing on her wrist. It was as if she was wearing a bracelet, but it gave off no beauty to her. A picture of a scull and a serpent became more defined under one of the petals of the red rose.

"What's this?" She screamed sharply turning about to face him.

"I can explain! Calm down!"

"You better sort this out for me! When did this happen? Why am I marked? Who did this? Was it you?" She suddenly lowered her voice on realization that he, the person she trusted the most, just took advantage of her.

"Was I some prize for The Lord?" She asked sarcastically, angry, and truly hurt.

_I trusted him. I gave everything to him, and the only thing he did for me was selling me to my enemy! How dares he?!_

She rushed for her wand and pointed it into his direction. He was fully dressed, and held both of his palms before him slowly advancing towards her.

"Please listen," he spoke slowly and carefully.

"Come any closer and I'll kill you." She said through clenched teeth. Quickly slipping into her dress, she ran towards the door.

"Going somewhere?" A tall man with long blond hair and cold gray eyes burst into the room. She gave out a loud yell and tripped, falling to the floor. He grabbed her by the arm and raised her to her feet. She struggled to get free. With each pull his grip tightened.

"The Dark Lord will deal with you himself!" He shouted to the young man that watched the scene, too shocked to move. "Report to him now!" With this the room was filled with a loud crack and the world before her became a nightmare. With each passing minute she felt explicit pain within her whole body. She couldn't hold herself from screaming in agony.

Finally her feet touched the ground once again and she fell to the floor. She couldn't think or move a muscle. Her eyes were filled with flashes of someone being tortured. His body rolled about the floor, and she heard the most frightening voice that ever passed her way.

_I heard him before! Voldemort!_

Abruptly, the violent pain she felt seized to exist, and momentarily a man in satin black robes walked up to her. She raised her eyes to meet two red rubies looking at her.

"Hello!" She heard his voice within her own thoughts.

"Take her to the fountain! We can't let her go. We'll just extract the information we need from her." Voldemort addressed the man that brought her in.

With another crack she found herself in some glittering water that started rising up. Panic overtook her. She violently banged on the glass that prevented her escape. Suddenly sleep surpassed her urge to get free. Her eyelids slipped down, and the last thing she saw was he. The man that gave her away.

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Here you go! It might be confusing, but you have to read on. You will find that there are a few of this kind of chapters that make no sense with the rest of the story; however, when you'll reach the end everything will be sorted out.

Enjoy!


	2. An Unwonted Child

My firs fic ever! I hope you'll like it. Have fun and Review!

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A new girl enters the grounds of Hogwarts bringing in many troubles along with herself. The graceful trio stretches out the hand of support, as one of their enemies lurks within the shadow awaiting for her. Will the person she trusts most betray her? What troubles will she bring? How is Snape involved? And what part do the Malfoys play in the whole story? Can you handle the adventure of her past, present and future? I thought so!

Chapter 1

An Unwonted Child

"No! Please let her go! I beg of you don't harm her! She's just a child!"

A woman was struggling to take back a baby from a hooded figure that took little notice of her. Her black robes were soaked with the harsh rain that fell upon them both. The sky was black, and the lightning flashed, piercing the dark clouds, followed by the clap of thunder that deafened anyone that it enveloped.

They were on a mountain of some sort that was barely covered by any kind of vegetation. She climbed on the rocks with all her might slipping here and there, bruising herself, but she kept going after the man.

The baby cried with fear, coldness, and wetness from the rain. It's lower lip trembled, as the quivering voice shook the surroundings with it's high pitched vibe. Every noise it made vibrated from rock to rock and jumped to the sky.

"Shhh child, I'm not here to frighten you. Calm down little one. Everything would be just fine. You have nothing to worry about. Just go back to sleep, I'll protect you," a soft voice had said. It was gentle and calm.

"Don't do this, please!"

At last they reached the cliff that fell to the waters bellow. The man came to the edge of it and peered down, then took couple of steps back. He gently looked at the child he was holding within his hands, and then his gaze rested at the woman that was kneeling besides him, kissing the bottom of his robes and murmuring with plea.

"Have mercy," she cried, "she did not do anything! There is no good of denying her a life. I can run away, and hide with her, and become another identity, and use no more magic! Please just don't harm her!"

He looked at her grinning, obviously too amused by the woman's trembling body and her quivering voice.

"You should have thought about the child before you decided to keep it. You disgraced my family and my son, not to mention the Dark Lord himself. You left with this child. Leaving..." he paused for a moment, obviously trying to remember something. He smiled suddenly, "how should I say this, leaving me no other choice. This must be done, no questions asked. If only my son knew what a tramp you are!"

"I swear she's his child! She's your granddaughter! He knows she's his! He accepted her!"

"Well, I do not!" He screamed with rage, "You were not married, and even though you are a pureblooded witch, I do not wish to be connected with you. Your family was honorable! I knew your father and mother quiet well, if they saw what life you chose to live! Your father was a loyal and a trustworthy Death Eater, as myself and all of my sons! All three of them! And I thought he'd marry you. The wedding was arranged from before you were born. How dare you dishonor your family's name?!" With a fast movement of his hand he placed a powerful blow upon her cheek. He gazed at her for a long time, as she cried, and then spat at her direction.

"Don't worry, missy, he'll get his own punishment as well. I thank the Lord that I received permission to discard of such garbage, as I hold within these arms of mine." He gazed at the child for the last time and tossed her of the cliff to the deep sea. The cries from the baby could be heard for a long time until the fierce waves covered over her.

The woman lay on the ground, shacking fervently. Her heart jumped faster and faster with each passing moment. The hooded figure came closer to her and revealed his face. He had long, silvery, blond hair. His face was outlined with harsh lines, but it was graceful and aristocratic. He had pale skin almost blue, or even translucent. His cold blue eyes sparkled like to diamonds, empty of emotions besides hatred.

He knelt besides her and grabbed her beautiful light brown locks. She gave a painful moan.

"It would be easy to kill you with a simple spell, but I think you should go on and cry for a while, it might do you good. I think I'll let you go crazy with the thought that I had killed your daughter."

He covered his face once again and with a pop left her alone upon the ground. She lay there, motionless for quite some time. Suddenly she jumped to her feet and screamed with agony. The mountains echoed her cry. It was terrifying.

"You think you saw the last of me? I'm talking to you, you old bustard! You might have gotten rid of my daughter and myself, but it's just for now! I'll come back to hunt you one day. Just mark my words!" As the last word escaped her lips, she rushed off the cliff down to her demise. She smiled to herself as the wind rushed through her hair. She was going back to her daughter.

The hooded man appeared before his eldest son. He closely came up to him and placed his hand upon his son's shoulder. It trembled.

"What's wrong? You look like you've been just cursed. What in the bloody hell is going on?"

His son looked at him, his eyes flashed with pain and dread, "Revers is dead father. The dark lord had killed him. That is not all," he added quickly seeing his father's face, "the Dark Lord is dead as well. He was killed by a mere child just moment earlier. Where is Arabelle?"

"Who was the child?"

  
"Harry Potter I think, if I'm not mistaking and my source was right. Where is Arabelle? I should tell her that my brother is dead. She has a child to deal with."

"They are both dead already along with my son," he said with a hint of pain on the tone of his voice.


	3. Diagon Alley

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Chapter 2

Diagon Alley

"Katie, are you up? Do you remember that we are going to... What is that place called?"

"Diagon Alley, mom! It is called Diagon Alley! It's not far away from us; we'll get there in no time. As you can hear I'm up!" I quickly flipped the covers over my bed and carefully placed my pillows over it. I ran up to the mirror and brushed my hair, after raised it upwards as fast as I could. Picking my bag from the floor, I ran down the stairs to the kitchen.

My mom was cheerfully cooking breakfast, and the smell of bacon reached my nose. My stomach gave a growl.

"Someone is hungry I see," she said looking towards me. Her silver hair was tightly fastened in a bun. Her blue eyes shined with joy, as she observed me carefully. Her thin lips curled upwards, "You look wonderful. Now, sit down and eat your breakfast, and after we'll run to that Alley of yours. Oh, can't remember the name! Oh well, I can't wait to see what they have done to the place. It must be quite different from the Red Square."

"I can't wait either! Can you imagine what it can look like? It won't look anything like Russia. Here they have the most beautiful school, nothing like my old one. It was small, and so was that old fool who was the headmaster. He didn't care for the kids! All he wanted is a warm place to sit on."

"Watch what you say about your elders," she said giving me a strict look, "well, I don't think this place changed that much."

"What do you mean," I asked her surprised.

"Well, I was born here and finished Hogwarts, so did your father. You were born here yourself."

I looked at her with my mouth open in disbelieve. How could that be? I never knew about it. I always thought that I was born in Russia. I never heard my parents talking English. They didn't even have an accent.

"What are you talking about? How can that be? And if it's true, why haven't you ever told me about it?"

"Well, your father didn't want you to know. He didn't want you asking questions such as why? and how? Besides you were too young. Well, I think it's all right to tell you now, as your father is no longer with us, bless his soul, and you are sixteen and quite suited for such news." She hoisted off the chair and wiped her hands with the apron she was wearing. She came closer to the window and looked out of it at the busy cars that passed by. Her features were tight; she was confident but in the same time scared of something. Her eyes were glazed. They were almost the eyes of a blind man that could see only white light with shadows that fell from many objects about him.

I came up to her and grabbed her hand. It was cold and I covered it within my palm trying to warm it. She frightened me. She wanted to tell me something, I know that for sure, but she hesitated.

"Mama, what's wrong?"

She looked at me with her misty eyes and then they came back into focus, and she smiled while saying, "nothing to worry. Maybe you are old enough to hear, but I'm not ready to tell the tale. We'll wait some more before I tell you. All right?"

She touched my cheek with her wrinkled hand. I was confused, but I wished not to press the matter. She needed her time, so I was willing to give it to her; however, I can't deny the fact that I was also quite eager to know the story that she was hiding from me. It must have been important, if she drove me out of the country and never told me about it.

"Are you done eating?" She asked me.

"Yap I'm done. Are you ready to go?"

"Sure lets go."

As the blocks drifted away from one another, giving an opening toward the Alley, mum and I were talking about all the things we could get. She said we needed a bank account, and that my wand would need to be replaced because I've broken it on the way to England. Mum was furious with me about it. She said I was taking everything lightly and that I didn't care about anything, took everything for granted. She also mentioned how ungrateful I was, but I don't remember anything she said about those topics. The words just entered one ear and flew out of the other. I was really annoyed by her lectures, besides I needed a new wand for a very long time because I outgrown mine already, and it wasn't that good to begin with. The best wands were in Ollivanders, one of the oldest shops in the world, if I might add.

There were two other wizards waiting for the way to open. They looked at us suspiciously. I have no idea why they did that. They were rather strange, but I couldn't get what was so interesting in my mother and me. They were wearing black robes with a green outline that embellished the edges of their garments. I observed that they were wealthy and must have been wealthy for many generations. They must have been pureblooded wizards. I was rather tempted to greed them, but didn't find the courage to raise my hand towards their direction. They probability would have thought I was some kind of a filthy object that should be avoided. I just gave them a faint smile and a node with my head, just to show respect. They did the same and began whispering something between one another.

Finally the way was clear and we presided. Of course I needed new robes, so we entered the first shop that read, Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, but mum didn't stay long.

"Oh, sorry dear, I have to go and get the money transferred. I'll just go to that bank, and you try on some robes. I'll be back soon. Just look at your letter with all the things you'll need in here and then buy a dress for the special occasions." She looked quite cheerful compared with her distant look that very morning. I couldn't hold the laughter that was pressing my shut lips.

"Mother, just because you got you're hands upon the money from dad, it doesn't mean you have to start and spoil me with useless things."

"Oh, I'm not spoiling you at all! You'll need it, trust me." With that she left me alone in the shop. There were few people waiting before me, and they eyed me, each one of them, but then turned back to whatever they were doing moments earlier. I came up to a squat woman that had short silvery hair that lay very untidy upon her head. She turned around and greeted me with a warming smile. Her dress was inviting, of lilac color, which matched her eyes.

I couldn't believe that there were purple eyes, and I couldn't resist but ask, "Are those your real eyes?" And immediately felt embarrassed. I could feel the blood rush up to my face, and go a little red.

She laughed at my question. Her voice rang like a bell. It was flawless.

"Of course dear, what did you thing?"

"Well, I never saw purple eyes before, especially that of yours. They are beautiful."

"You have quite beautiful eyes yourself, dear. That dark blue is even frightening. I know another person that has such beautiful eyes like you."

"Really? I never though my color was natural either. Kids at my school always tried spells on me to remove whatever charm I had put to make my eyes this blue. They were always angry with me that I never told them the charms that I used. Even my friend got a bit harsh with me at times."

"Well, Lucius Malfoy has your eyes. I thought you would know. You look quiet like him. Although his son is very charming and is an unmistakable Malfoy, his eyes are of his mother, light gray but cold they are. Yes they are."

"I'm sorry, I never heard the name. Why do you think I should know him?"

"Well, you're a Malfoy of course, are you not?" She asked me quickly. I had no idea of whom she was talking about. For a moment I thought she was crazy. I looked at her in surprise. Unwillingly I shook my head letting her know that I'm not.

"Oh bless my soul, who are you then? I can't believe you're not a Malfoy. Are you sure you're father was not one of the three sons from that family? It's unbelievable!"

"Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I came here from Russia or not that far from it. My parent's were from a muggle family, both of them."

She looked very disconsolate, and I even thought I said something wrong. I couldn't understand what I could have said. I retraced our conversation, but found nothing that could have offended the woman.

"Pity," she said, "well, what do you need?"

"Oh, I'm going to attend Hogwarts this year, and I need some robes, a hat, gloves..."

"I know dear, I've been running this shop for a very long time." She cut in and now her voice was harsh, like I insulted her beyond any recognition.

"I would also like a formal dress," I added.

"Oh, yes a dress for the ball that the seven years attend. We have wonderful dresses out in that corner, if you like go and look at them after I get your measurements."

I smiled at her but she looked at me indifferently. I didn't know what to say to her, so I dropped the topic.

She waved her wand to the measuring tape and a quill that started recording my sizes. It was done significantly fast, and I was happy about it. I couldn't wait to look at the dresses in the back corner. I came down from the chair and began walking down to the far side of the shop when a dark blue, velvet clock caught my eyes. It was wonderful, incredible. A pretty little thing it was and mighty expensive.

"It would look beautiful on you," I heard someone say behind me. I turned around to see a blond boy that was a head taller then I. He was well build, not too big or small. He had the softest facial lines that I have ever seen. They were not rough like many boys have at their age. His lips were of light pink color with a tint of blue. His skin was pale. He was wearing black robes with a serpent drawn on the upper corner, just bellow his left shoulder.

Two boys accompanied him. Both of them had vague expressions on their faces. They were much bigger then the blond boy that was standing in the middle. One of them had a square body. His face was like a large balloon, quite pink if I might add. His nose was slightly lifted at the tip, and his lips were so thin that I thought he hadn't any. The other one was way taller then the rest. He had curly brown hair. His lips were kind of puffy, like from an insect bite. His eyes were expressionless; they did look mean, however. They also wore black robes with the same serpent as the blond boy.

I studied them carefully, and they did the same. I don't know what they were thinking of, and honestly didn't care. They were strangers to me, and I didn't want to be friends with them, no matter what.

However, I didn't wish to be thought ill mannered, so I answered, "thank you."

"Draco Malfoy and this is Crabbe and Goyle."

"Nice to meet you," I studied the boy carefully; he was a Malfoy. I saw some similarities between him and myself, but they were not that strong to link myself to his family.

"Aren't you going to introduce yourself?" Draco asked me, and the other two grinned at me and eyed me with their pig like eyes.

"Should I? Why do you wish to know my name?"

"Well, I gave you mine."

"I didn't ask for it."

"Oh, you're a tough smart mouth girl. How funny, a muggle you must be, if you don't know who I am."

"No, I'm not a muggle, and I have an idea of who you are, but I still do not wish to talk to strange boys. Further more, I do not wish to talk to people that are too in love with their own selves."

He looked at me with perplexity, and I saw his pale cheeks grow red with embarrassment. How easy it is to embarrass a teenage boy. One should only show indifference towards him, and they boil with anger.

He looked at me for quite some time, and the two guys besides him snicker.

"Shut up!" He shouted at them and then back on me. His eyes shown anger, and he was going red. From the corner of my eye I saw Madam Malkin coming up to us, smiling her warm smile.

"Oh young Master Malfoy! How are you? What can I do for you today?"

"Oh, I need new robes for school."

"Ah, outgrown the ones you bought last year? This young lady is buying her own robes as well." I wished she would hold her tong out of my business. Why did she have to mention it? I gazed at her with amazement and quickly shifted my gaze at Draco.

"I never saw you at Hogwarts. Are you new?" He asked me, "are you a first year?" He added quickly smirking at me. I didn't answer, as I saw mum entering the store.

"Are my cloths ready?"

"Yes dear, they are at the counter over there. Would you like anything else?"

"I would like this clock, in green if you have."

"I'll get it for you, just wait for me by the counter."

"Thank you," I told her, as she turned around to the back of the store. "I'll see you later." I told the boys and walked passed them towards mum. She waved at me and smiled. I love her smile, it's comforting, and makes me feel relaxed.

Moments later we were out of the shop, and began our adventure through Diagon Alley. There were many wizard, witches, and their kids. All of them ran from store to store, buying books, quills, parchments, and other things.

We finally reached Flourish and Blotts; mum opened my letter and observed the books that I would need.

"Well, you have most of the books already. All you need is _The Oldest Potions Ever Known by Mart Vandal._ It's a very good book to learn the most useful potions. Your potion professor must be an interesting and smart man. When I was in school, I loved potions. They are very useful even if you're not good with normal, wand magic."

"Mum, you know I hate potions. Lets just get it and go on. I want to go back to Madam Malkin's and get that dress for the ball."

"Why didn't you get it the first time you were there?"

"It was nothing, some annoying boy was bugging me and I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could."

"Well, I'll go get the book, and we'll head that way."

She left me by the entrance. I stood there for a while, but I got bored, so I walked to the closest shelf of books. All of them were about magical creatures and different kind of charms. I went a bit further into the shop, potions, spells, goblin history, muggle studies, wizard art, music, and costumes. Finally I came into a dark room that was illuminated by candles. I picked up a book covered in leather. _Control One's Mind With the Help of Potions, _it read. I couldn't find the author, so I decided to flip through it. The book contained the most complex potions that I have ever read.

"Didn't I tell you to wait for me by the entrance?"

"Oh, sorry mum. I got carried away by the books."

We took leave from the bookstore and were heading back to Madam Malkin's. The alley was clearing; it was getting dark. We spend most of the day shopping, and our legs were tiered. We reached the shop, and as we entered the bell rang. Madam Malkin's head pocked out from the office room.

"It's you once more! Have you forgotten something?"

"Yes, the dress."

"Ah yes, the ball. Well, come over here. We have the most gorges dresses. Witch color would you like?"

"Light blue."

"Honey, don't you think pink or mauve would look good on you?"

"Mum, I don't want to be pink. I want to have green or blue."

"We have this dress over here." She pointed to a light blue dress that was off the shoulders. It had an open back and a sun skirt. It was gorges, just like she said. It was made of silk with rays of see through material that I couldn't name.

"How much?" My mother asked. I was holding my breath; I really wished to have it.

"I'll give you a discount. One hundred Galleons."

"One hundred!" I exclaimed.

"We'll take it." I looked at mother as if she was crazy. We wouldn't be able to pay for it. I watched the storeowner wrapping the dress and putting it into a bag. My mother carefully opened her wallet and took out a checkbook. I never knew wizards had checkbooks. I always thought it was a muggle creation.

"Mum, where did we get so much money?" I've asked her as we waited the gait to open towards the muggle world.

"Your father, dear." She answered plainly.

"Where did he..."

"Don't ask questions. You got it, so be happy about it."

The gate finally opened, and we stepped out. Suddenly I remembered that we forgot the most important thing.

"Mum, we forgot to get a wand!"

She looked at me with irritation and annoyance.

"What is going on in your head? Seriously, I think that all you have in there is wind. Here," she handed me 20 galleons, "I think it will be enough for a very dissent wand. I'll wait for you in the car. Be quick!"

I took the money and went back to Diagon Alley. __


	4. Never Been Kissed

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Chapter 3

Never Been Kissed

I ran back through the alley. Ollivanders was the last shop on the alleyway that slowly turned into a dark hall with creepy people in it. I entered the shop and a tinkling bell rang within it. The room was silent and very dim. It was dusty, like an old mansion that was abandoned for many years.

The dust prickled my nose, and I sneezed. It was still quiet. I continued observing the shop. Many narrow boxes were stacked one on top of the other, way up to the ceiling. I came up to the counter and raised to my tiptoes looking to the right and to the left, but I didn't spot anyone. I gave a sigh of disappointment.

"The shop must be closed already," I thought. It was dark outside, and the crescent moon was slowly creeping upwards to the sky. I looked out the window and dusted the purple curtains, "This place needs serious cleaning," I've said.

"Good evening," said a soft voice behind me. I jumped from surprise. An old wizard was standing behind the counter smiling at me.

"Hello"

"The place is kind of dusty. I can't get myself to clean it. I am kind of old."

"I'm sorry...I didn't wish to say anything...I came to buy a wand."

"Ah, a wand. Wonderful things, are they not? Well, lets see witch wand you are destined for. Right or left?"

"I'm right handed." He measured my arm and disappeared into the back of the store. Shortly he brought out five thin boxes and placed them before me.

"Nice wands. Very nice wands! Here ten and a quarter inch long, swishy, made of willow. It is excellent for charm work. Lily Potter bought a wand similar to this one. She was quite good with her spells."

I took the wand within my hands and gave a wave. The wand did absolutely nothing. It was like holding a twig. I placed it back into its cover.

"I don't think this would fit." I said.

"No, no definitely not."

"Well, give a try with this, ten inches, Beachwood and unicorn hair. It is nice and flexible."

I took the wand from him and gave another wave. It would not obey my movement or my mind. I accidentally put the owner's robes on fire. He quickly grabbed a wand and muttered something under his breath.

"Not willing to listen? Hmm... Well, lets see Maple and dragon heartstring, eleven inches."

I only managed to touch the wand, when he snatched it from my hands.

"No, it would not do."

We went through the wands he had brought. He took out some more, but non-of them managed to fit me. He finally brought out a black box covered with snakeskin.

"I can't bring anything else to you, but this. All the other wands are definitely not your match." He opened the box and within lay something that seemed to be made of scales.

"Eleven and a half inches made of dragon fang covered in basilisk's scales with a phoenix feather."

I gently picked it up and felt a source of energy rushing into my body. It was amazing. Nothing that I ever felt before. It was a true power boost.

"Ah, the perfect wand for you. It's very powerful, oh yes. You are meant to do great things, many great things." He put the wand back into its case and wrapped it in a brown bag.

"That would be sixteen gold Galleons."

I placed sixteen gold coins on to the table, and he quickly rolled them down to his palms. A weird man he was. He gave me the bag, and I reached out to take it. However, before I could move my hand away, he grabbed it.

"Take special care of your wand. It was in my shop for over thirty years, and I thought no one would ever buy it. The neither right witch or wizard ever came to take claim of it. Now you, my dear, have the power with dragons and serpents," he looked at me, frightening me, sending a cold current way down to my bones, "a rear gift indeed. Do not loose it, or it might fall into the wrong hands."

"I'll take good care of it, thank you." He finally let my hand loose and I hurried out from the shop. It was dark already, and the alley was elucidated by streetlights. There were few people walking back and forwards. Some kids ran after their parents laughing. A cold breeze rushed through my blond hair and cooled down my face. I closed my eyes, letting the wind take me to the sky.

"Accio bag!" The paper bag I was holding wiggled in my hands and then gave a great yank. It felt like my finger bones were broken. I let go of it and began massaging my injured hand. I completely forgot about the bag that was pulled out of my palms, and the warning that Mr. Ollivander gave me.

"Oh, did I hurt your precious fingers?" I heard someone say. The voice was disdainful. It was imitating a young child that was spoiled to the core. I turned around and found no other than Draco Malfoy. He was grinning at me, pointing his wand at my direction.

"Draco, give me back my wand."

"Oh, you're not going to call me Malfoy? I must have made a very good impression on you. How splendid! We can even be friends."

"No, you haven't made a very nice impression on me. I just don't think that your family name needs to be though badly about, at least by me. I don't know your family, so until they give me a reason to think otherwise I would not speak badly about them; however, you are an arrogant fool that thinks too highly of himself. And no I don't want to be friends with you or those two idiots you were walking with. Now, I'll ask you again give me back my wand." My voice was firm, and I even thought to play around with him a bit. I decided not to, as he had an advantage, two wands against zero.

In a blink of an eye I was pushed against the wall that had a name of some weird alley that began with a K. I almost fell to the ground, but he held me by the arm. He pressed against me, and I could feel his body upon my own. I smelled a soft scent of cologne that gently tinkled my nose. I felt his hot breath upon my neck.

"I can have you right now, you know!" He whispered into my ear. It was not a question but a statement. His voice was passing no lies or hesitations. A cold shiver ran up and down my spine. I was beginning to fear him. He was some kind of lunatic.

His cheek brushed against mine. It was soft like the features of his face. He looked at me with his gray eyes. They were enchanting and captivating.

"Are you scared of that arrogant little boy that you were just insulting?" He asked me. I suppose he felt the quivering of my body. I was scared of him by now. I didn't answer.

I tried to get my hand free, but he held them tightly. I was panicking, pushing him off me to run free. His body was heavy and I couldn't even move. I looked to the side. There were still people about us, but they just passed us by and didn't look our way.

"They can't see you nor hear you. I've put an invisibility charm on us. Waited for you from the morning. You never left your mother's side. I even thought I wouldn't get you, but how convenient for me that you forgot to buy your wand."

"I haven't done anything to you! What do you want from me?"

"Ah, but you see, you have no respect to your superiors." I couldn't help but give a small chuckle. This boy was insane, yes, but quite amusing. I suddenly felt his lips upon mine. They were rough and cold. He pressed against me; I struggled but couldn't get free. He forced my lips to stay locked with his own. I was on the verge of tears. I felt his cold hands going under my tank top. I didn't want to wear a robe and a clock, thought that I put them on at the train. Now I wished I had them, at least I wouldn't feel his dirty hands upon my body.

His hand moved from my back to my breast, and that is when I had enough of it. I sensed a strange energy building in me. All of the sudden it left, and a powerful wind pushed him off me. I was free at last. The bag flew back into my hands. He looked at me dumbfounded.

"Are you all right?" I heard someone running in our direction. I turned around to see 2 boy of sixteen and a girl of the same age. One of them had messy brown hair. He had green eyes that were covered by glasses. He wore muggle cloth like the other two. The girl had bushy light brown hair that fell to her face. She brushed it off and took out her wand. The second boy had fiery red hair. He was freckled, kind of tall and thin. His gaze shifted from Draco to myself. He gave me a sneering look. I took a step back from all three of them.

"Are you all right?" The boy with the glasses asked me one more. I nodded.

"What are you doing here, Potter?"

"Obviously you were up to no good. What did you want from her?"

"None of your business!" Draco raised his wand and pointed it towards the Potter boy. He did the same, but directed it towards Draco.

"Harry don't bother," the girl said, "he doesn't worth it. Just let him go."

"Ya it's probably his bedtime," the red haired boy had said. I glanced back at Draco. He was red. His hands were turned to fists and he jumped at the red haired boy. Harry jumped to drag the boy from Draco.

I picked up his wand and said, "Stupefy!" Both boys fell to the ground not moving.

"I'm sorry to do this to your friend," I told Harry and the girl.

"Don't worry about it. They need to cool off. My name is Hermione, by the way." She stretched out her arm in my direction.

"Katie," I said while shacking it.

"This is Harry," she pointed to the boy with the glasses, "and that's Ron." She finished looking down at the red head.

"How did you see us?"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, looking confused.

"Well, Draco had cast some kind of a spell. He said that no one would see us nor hear me, if I screamed."

"What did he do to you?" Hermione asked, her eyes greatly enlarged. Her mouth was open.

I went a bit red but didn't wish to tell them what really happened. "I was kind of indifferent towards him this morning, and did embarrass him before his friends. He was waiting for me to come out, so he could teach me a lesson on how to respect my superiors," I laughed and so did they.

"Superiors? Him?" Hermione asked. She couldn't stop laughing. She grabbed her stomach and bend down a bit. Her laugh echoed in the silent alley.

"Maybe we should let them go free?"

"Ya, I think they cooled off. Finito Incantados."

The two boys stood up. Draco quickly raised to his feet and looked at me.

"I'll take care of you later," he said, so only I could hear, "and I deal with you three in school."

"Dream on!" Ron told him, as Draco went to the Leaky Cauldron.

Again Ron looked at me scornfully.

"What did I do?" I asked him.

"Why did we go to save her?" He asked Harry, "she's just another Malfoy."

"I am not a Malfoy! Never associate me with them, well, at least with that scum. I don't even know who the Malfoys are!"

"Oh sorry! You look it though." Ron told me.

"We better head out or the gait will shut."

"It doesn't close, Harry!" Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Well, are you going to Hogwarts?" Ron asked enthusiastically.

"Yes, I was buying all of the things that I would need."

"So were we!" He continued, "I can't wait till school starts! It's bloody brilliant, you'll see. There are very boring classes such as History of Magic and Divination, but everything else is quite nice."

"You say History of Magic is boring? Why?"

"Well, Professor Binns is a very old ghost! I don't think he knows anything besides Goblin History."

"You're still oh Goblin History?" I was amazed.

"For the past six years!" He answered rather annoyed.

We walked quietly for the rest of the way. I was consumed by the events that took place.

"How could he? That filthy little git. How dare he place his lips upon my own and going under my cloths. I need a hot shower, that I need. What shame to spend my first kiss on someone like him." I told myself. I guess I was getting kind of red and angry. The three of them looked at me, but didn't say anything. Thought better to let me be.

We finally came out from the gate and stepped into Leaky Cauldron. It was filled with people. They laughed and joked around. I could hear cheers and breaking of glasses that were followed by shouts from the waiters. The room was filled with smoke, so I coughed two or three times, and saw that Hermione did the same.

"Maybe we should go out with you. Just incase Draco is waiting for you once more." Harry told me.

"Thanks."

We opened the door and a bell rang within the place. My mom was passing back and forward before the entrance. As we stepped out, she ran up to me and hugged me so tight that I thought I'd suffocate.

"What took you so long? I was worried about you! The gait closed, so I couldn't go after you." I saw Ron give Hermione a victorious look, and she looked somewhat humiliated.

"Mum, don't worry! Mr. Ollivander couldn't find a wand that would suite me for a very long time. Oh and this is Harry, Ron, and Hermione."

She looked up at them and gave a smile, "nice to meet you."

"You too, Mrs.. Ah..."

"Mrs. Mal"

"Mrs. Mal." Harry finished.

"Well, I guess we'll see you on the train. It was nice meeting you Mrs. Mal. Bye!" They said in unison and disappeared into the hotel. I waived them good-bye, and mum and I walked back to the car and drove home.


	5. No Satisfaction

****

Chapter 4

No Satisfaction

I couldn't wait for the door to open. Mum was looking for the keys from the house in her purse. Each time she gave a sigh of confusion, or a remark such as "Where can they be?" I experienced a spin of anger, irritation, and annoyance. I called her "stupid" and "what an idiot," without her knowing of course. I couldn't help but ask "how hard is it to know where you're own keys are?" I asked myself "why do I have such a mother?"

She lost her keys within her bag millions of times. We would stand outside for hours. Once we had to stay at her friend's house because she lost them. The next morning we found them within her rain coat. I was infuriated; however, there was nothing that I could have done. She was my mother after all. All the things that passed through my mind during those periods were just for me to know. I loved my mother very much; however, mothers often aggravate their kids at my age. I would have reacted differently if it was on any other day but this, but with my luck she had to lose the keys today.

"Do you think you left them in the car?"

"No dear, I didn't take them out of my purse. Where could they have gone? Well, keys don't have legs, do they?"

It was no time for jokes. I gave her an angry look, and she went back looking in her bag.

"Are you sure they are not in the car?"

"Yes, yes."

"Give me the car keys. I'll go look for them." She handed me a small silver key with an eagle pressed in at the top of it. I took it and went towards the car. We had a small vehicle. It was of red color for four passengers. It was a Mazda of some kind, but I don't remember of which. It wasn't in a very good condition, as we had no money to afford a really nice one. I didn't really mind to have a second hand car because I've spent most of my time in school; I felt sorry for my mother, however.

"What the hell is going on today? I'm officially putting this day as 'the day where everything goes wrong.' First Madam Malkin gets angry with me for no reason at all, then that stupid Draco shows up. What kind of a name is Draco? Anyways, then I have to run back to get a wand, which takes forever! Oh my god, and that disgusting kiss, again from that stupid dragon! Now, she has to lose her keys! What a dandy day! Thank you God for looking after me. You are a very nice friend!" I said to myself while heading towards the car.

I flipped the door open and climbed inside. It was still cool from the air conditioner compared to the stiffness of the outside world. I looked through the papers that were covering the passenger's seat. I advanced to the driver's place and looked under the chair. All I found were some empty bottles of butterbear.

"She needs to clean this car!" I exclaimed during the battle between the bottles and my hands. "She also needs to stop drinking this stuff in the muggle world!" I added.

"Honey, I found it!" I heard mum's voice scream.

"Goody." I responded through grinned teeth.

I shut the doors and ran towards the entrance. Mum was already inside taking care of the answering machine. The moment my feet stepped through the doorway I ran to my room and into the bathroom.

"Are you well?" She asked, but I didn't respond. I turned on the water and placed my hand under the running stream. It felt so soft and inviting. I slipped off the cloths and stepped under the shower. Gathering an extremely large amount of soap, I placed it on the sponged. I rubbed it against my hand until the soap began to bubble and spread the foam about my body.

"Finally," I thought, "finally I can wash his sent off me. Finally I can wash away his touch."

The warm water glided down my body. It was the true joy of being alive. Sure you might think that it isn't, but at that moment I was the happiest person on the planet. I don't know for how long I stayed under the droplets of water, but by the time I got out the smell of dinner was slipping through the opening under the door to my room. I took a deep breath of the sweet sent and immediately felt hungry.

While removing the towel from my hair, I looked through the potion book that lay upon the table. It contained many potions about removing sleepiness and giving your mind a fresh start. Some of the potions were about bringing back your youth others about learning faster and more accurately. They contained many ingredients that I never heard about, formulas, amounts, and numbers. I knew that the potion class would drive me insane.

"Why do we have to take this miserable class? Besides who would want to drink those nasty potions."

"I did drink one. That's how I met your father."

I turned around and saw my mother leaning on the wall by the entrance. She was looking warmly at me. Her eyes sparkled, as the light from my lamp fell upon her face.

"What do you mean you drank a potion and met dad?"

"Well, I was about fifteen, and many girls began having little romances with boys. I was left out from their conversations because I had nothing to tell them, as I had no one to talk about. I felt left out, so I made a potion. My potion professor was a really good man. I loved his classes; they were exiting and educational."

"Mum, if this is your idea to persuade me on loving potions the way you did, it will not work. We are two different people, and what you like I might not like at all."

"I know that, and this is not one of my bright ideas to make you enjoy potions. Well, the potion takes a month of preparing. There are thirty ingredients that have to be included, however, each one has to be placed on it's on with the difference of 24 hours between each addition. There is a little catch though, the main ingredient is the maker's own blood. The maker has to be a virgin, or the potion will show you nothing, as you are not pure. The maker's blood has to be added during the full moon within the month in which you are making your potion."

"Well, that's not hard, pick a month, and wait for the full moon and in the mean time add in one ingredient each day."

"Yes you might think it's easy, but there is an order at which you add them in. If the order is not followed the potion is worthless."

"But the moon is not full on the same day each month. Do you mean the maker has to count the days for the full moon, and add the things into it...Mum you were insane."

"Ya, I had to wait for many months for the right one to come. Eventually it cam right before the exams. It was in May that the moon was at the right place, so I began my potion. Each night I would go, get what I need, and drop it into the potion."

"How would you know who the boy is?"

"Well, after the potion is complete you drink it."

"Is it disgusting?"

"Not at all, the scent of jasmine takes over the nasty odor and the taste of vanilla takes away the bitterness of the drink. When you drink it, you have to wait couple of hours. When the potion takes affect, everyone will begin glowing blue except the one who is destined for you, and he'll be red."

"What if the maker likes girls?" I asked. My mom's expression changed from dreamy, to confused, to worried. She gave me the most serious look there could be. I quickly realized the reason of her mood change and added, "don't worry, I like boys. However, if I did like girls what would you do to me? I mean what if I was born that way, huh?"

"I would have wished you good life, and cried each night into my pillow." I laughed at her remark. I went into my closet to get a T-shirt and some cotton shorts. While putting them on, I saw mum flipping the pages of the potion book with the same dreamy expression that she had moments earlier.

"I want to know who I'm destined for, but I'll never make the potion right," I gave a sigh of disappointment and went out of the room, "Mama are you coming?"

I went down the stairs that were covered with a fluffy new carpet. The threads went between my toes and felt warm. The walls were occupied with different photos of myself, mom, dad, and just the whole family. Some of them were usual muggle pictures; others were moving and waiving at me. We had a big photo of dad at the bottom of the steps. He always greeted me, as I entered the house. He wished mum and me "Happy Birthday!" and "Merry Christmas!" However, he couldn't replace the real father that I had. The one who hugged me during the morning, and kissed my forehead when I was crying during the night. He couldn't replace the person who helped me with my homework and often drove me to tears when I couldn't comprehend the word he was saying. After he died, I would sit before the photo and talk to him for hours, but slowly I got more and more consumed by everyday life.

Our kitchen was a small room that was painted with middle toned yellow paint. When I entered the room, it made me happy. The bright lights and the warmness that came from the stove sometimes muffled my thoughts, and all I felt and thought about was the coziness of this little room.

We had a wooden table by the window that was encircled by four chairs covered with sitting pillows. I came closer to the stove and raised one of the covers. I felt the warm steam coming off the food as I bend to smell it. As the aroma reached my nose the hunger over took my body.

"Mama come on! I'm so hungry, I can die!"

"Coming! Coming!" I heard her say as her feet went down the stairs. She entered the kitchen and took out two plates and two cups. I took the cups from her and filled them with hot tea. Placing them on the table I saw mum taking out the bread from the upper shelf of our cabinet. I quickly rushed to the washer and took out two spoons. After running from the fridge, to the washer, to the stove, to the cabinet, and to the table, we settled down and began eating.

I was so hungry from the days of work. We didn't have lunch, and it was nine o'clock already. I quickly gobbled down the delicious soup that my mother learned how to make from a Thai book. It was my favorite. Chicken soup with coconut milk, green curry, mushrooms, and other spices. It was amazing.

We talked some more about the school, and how she didn't wish for me to go. We drank our tea with cookies and chocolate. But something strange startled us, a noise that came from the basement.

"Stay here," I heard my mother say, as I was rising from the chair. She slowly

walked to the basement wand in hand. I didn't listen to her and rushed to the door. I remembered placing my wand before the entrance, as I stormed into the house. Luckily for me, it was still there, wrapped into the brown paper bag. I took it out from its case and rushed to the basement door. The light was on and I saw my mother rising up the stairs. I gave a sigh of relief.

"Was it the neighbor's cat again?" I asked.

"I suppose so. What are you doing here? I thought I told you to remain in the kitchen."

"Www...well...you see I was scared just incase...you know...I needed my wand, so I went to get it...and here you are coming out of the basement."

"I don't want you to disobey me. If you wanted your wand, you should have gotten it and gone back to the kitchen. The basement door is to a different direction from where you were supposed to be." She was angry. Somehow she was on edge ever since father passed away. She was always cautious about her surroundings. She was skeptical with strangers and even her friends. She hardly left my side if we were out of the house. If I would wonder off somewhere, she'll be furious with me. I couldn't comprehend her peculiar behavior. Every time I ask her about it, she'll switch the subject. If I consistently bugged her about it, she would get cross and send me to my room.

I studied her carefully, as we went back to the kitchen. She looked at the floor and muttered something to herself. Her eyes were distant, within her thoughts.

"Wash the dishes and go to bed. I'll be in the living room. I have to write a letter to someone, so I'll borrow Seelvin for that task." I gave her a node of agreement and watched her disappear in to the living room.

" 'Stay here, don't go anywhere.' God I'm not a baby anymore. I can do whatever I set my mind to do. If I want to clean the room, I'll clean the room. If I want to cook, I'll cook. If I want to help my own mother, I'll help her. But no, no sorry. Not this time! Now days I have to sit in a corner and watch her leaving me. Now days I have to wait and worry if anything happened to her. I have no voice in this house. I just listen and follow orders." My hands made rough movements with a sponge as I washed the plates. The hot water was burning my hands, but I gave little notice. I couldn't stop the mumbling that escaped my lips. I suppose from the side it seemed like I was hissing or cursing someone. Otherwise it sounded like I was talking like a snake. However, that gift was long lost. Only two people know how to speak Parseltong, Voldemort and that "Boy Who Lived". I don't remember that boy's name. All I know he vanquished him at the age of one. It was still a mystery to me how he managed to do such a thing, but maybe it was not he at all. Maybe he's not that special. Everyone say it was his mother that covered him and died for him. To me it was the mother who took over him, and not that boy at all. It was, however, just a matter of opinion.

I finally finished washing the dishes and took the liberty of drying them, as I didn't wish to be sent to bed. I could hear the scratching of the quill upon the parchment, and Seelvin was hooting within the lounge. I finally cleaned the kitchen, so it sparkled, but my mother was still writing. I finally had to enter the living room. Mum placed her letter into an envelope writing Albus Dumbleore on it. She gave it to our silvery owl and watched it fly away.

"Mummy, is everything all right?" I asked her, as I placed myself on the floor within her feet. She waved her wand, and my brush fell into her hand. She began gently brushing my golden locks. She used to do this when I was little, but I don't remember when she last brushed my hair. Something was definitely wrong. I turned around to look at her.

"What's wrong?" She asked me.

"That is the same thing I want to know. What is wrong with you? What are you hiding from me? Why have we moved to Russia? I now know for a fact, you didn't want to leave. Was it father that made you?"

"No it wasn't."

"Who was it then? You didn't do it out of your own free will." I was standing before her, practically screaming.

"Do not use that tone with me, young lady. Every thing that I do or done doesn't involve you in it. I did it for you, and I don't have to justify myself to you or anyone on this planet."

"Mum, you're going paranoid. I'm not a girl anymore. I know what I'm doing, and I can handle whatever is coming my way."

"Good for you, but you still going to do what I say you will!"

"Just once! Just once in my life, I wish I had freedom and done things the way I planned them. I don't want to be controlled. I don't want you butting into my life. You're like a control freak. You take everything into you're own hands and hold it so tight that there is scarcely any way to breath! Open up your hands! Why do you think I'm always alone? Why do you ask me about my friends?"

"Because I want to know about them, but you always say there's nothing interesting."

"Because I have no friends! How can I have them, if you're breathing down my neck every single minute? I can't go anywhere no matter what the circumstances are, be I at home doing nothing, if the house is clean, if the food is prepared, no matter what, I have to stay alone. I have to be by myself. I have to stay and pretend that I'm happy!"

Seelvin flew back through the open window and landed on mum's shoulder. She was carrying a parchment that simply said;

"Don't Worry."

Mum gave a sigh of relief and looked back at me.

"Everything is great! No worries!"

I didn't know what to say to her. This conversation that we just had was just a simple blabbering. She didn't even listen to anything that I've said. All she was thinking about is that darn letter. What was in it? I called Seelvin to my hand and went to my room. I heard my mother calling my name, but I didn't care. I just went, not looking back.

"Hey, there Seelvin. Are you hungry? I'm going to give you something really special tonight. What do you think about that? Would you like it?"

I opened the door to my room, and couldn't hold back the scream of terror that overtook my whole being.


	6. Death and a New Beginning

****

Chapter 5

Death and a New Beginning

A clocked figured walked into my direction holding a wand. My room was a mess. The papers lay all over the place. My cloths were taken out from the shelves and thrown to the floor. My diary was open upon my desk.

The figure slowly walked towards me. Seelvin flew upon its head and drown away the hood. I saw a middle aged man. His eyes were piercing black. I saw his long nose that stretched over his mouth. I could see his yellow teeth under his upper lip. He looked like an animal. His skin was gray, unnaturally gray. It was as if he had no blood within his veins, no hint of red. Amazingly he had no hair.

He muttered something and pointed his wand at my owl. She fell to the floor, and I gave out a shriek. I heard my mother's feet pounding on the tiled floor. The man gave a cold laugh. I remembered that I had my wand within my hands. I pointed it at him and screamed, "Expelliarmus!" He muttered a counter spell, and all I saw were sparks of bright light.

Without another thought I turned around and ran downstairs. While glancing back, I collided with mother that quickly stood before me.

"Run!" She screamed. I couldn't just leave her, so I gave a tug on her dress to indicate that I want her to run with me.

"Run, I said!" She screamed once again. I gave her a last look and began to descend to the first floor. I heard mother putting a Shield charm on herself.

Moments later a raspy cold voice shouted, "Avada Kedavra!" Green lights filled the house, and someone fell to the ground. I was nearing the bottom of the stairs when he appeared right before me with a loud snap. I wanted to scream but my vocal cords were paralyzed. I was backing away from him but tripped on one of the stairs. He was covering me, bending down over me, and smelling my hair. I too, got a bit of scent of him. He smelled of fire and blood. His robes were soaked with water and they were covered by dry grass.

All of the lamps turned off. We were covered by darkness. I felt his breathing upon my face, and tears ran down my cheeks. I knew the curse that gave off green lights. I saw it once before, and it meant only one thing, my mother was dead. I was left all alone, and maybe had only minutes to live myself.

"Lumos," the figure said. The tip of his wand began to glow with a silvery light. It gave a hint of pink at times. His wand must have experienced ages of killing. It was drenched with blood that even a simple spell gave of the shades of violent scarlet.

He raised his wand towards my face, examining me closely. His hand slowly began to rise to move away my hair from my eyes, and at that moment I felt so weak that I couldn't move or even breathe. It felt like I was slowly slipping away to my death, or fainting.

"I can't be scared," I thought. But I wasn't dying or loosing consciousness. My body slowly began disappearing. I was dwindling into the thin air. Before he realized what was happening, I was fully gone. He gave a growl and stepped away from the foot of the stairs. I couldn't understand what was going on. I could still see him, but he had no idea I was there.

"Blasted, where did she go!"

Another figure apparated besides him. He had the same black clock as the first one. He took off his hood, and I saw a man of around thirty. He had long blond hair, and dark blue eyes.

_"I only know one other that has the eyes just like you."_

"Really? I never though my color was natural either. Kids at my school always tried spells on me to remove whatever charm I had put to make my eyes this blue. They were always angry with me that I never told them the charms that I used. Even my friend got a bit harsh with me at times."

"Well, Lucius Malfoy has your eyes. I thought you would know. You look quiet like him. Although his son is very charming and is an unmistakable Malfoy, his eyes are of his mother, light gray but cold they are. Yes they are."

The conversation passed through my mind again and again. I saw Madam Malkin talking to me and smiling. It was he, the one she was talking about. Those blue eyes were frightful. They showed no mercy or pardon. They were cold and passed no kindness. He had my eyes, or better I had his. I had his hair, his shape of face, his lips; however, my lines were softer, my skin was crimson, his was blue and pallid. Still, the similarity was astonishing. Who was he? How was I connected to him? I had no idea.

I watched the two men arguing among one self. Finally the one that I thought to be Lucius Malfoy grabbed the other by the upper portion of his robes.

"You've let her escape!"

"I didn't! She just disappeared!"

"People don't go into the thin air without muttering a spell. She couldn't disapparate, as she does not know how. Someone called her out of the house!"

How could he have known that I can't apparate? Obviously they didn't want me dead. All they wished for was to take me somewhere. Someone needed me for something, but for what? I also realized that someone was protecting me, as I couldn't have disappeared on my own.

I wanted answers to my questions, but I didn't wish to stand there and ask them about it. I crawled down the stairs, as quietly as I could manage. The two of them were standing quite close to the door, so I had to slip behind their backs in such a manner so I wouldn't touch them.

Within five minutes I was outside and felt the light breeze upon my skin. I had no time to loose. I began running, not fully aware where I was going. As I was enlarging the distance between the two figures and myself, my body was loosing the fright that it had received. My mind began thinking more clearly, and then the thought of my mother came into focus. My eyes were overcame by useless tears. No droplet of salt water that I shed will bring her back, I knew that. I experienced it on my own self just this spring, and again it confronted me.

My vision became blurry. I pushed her out of my mind and thought about the place I should go to.

"Leaky Cauldron!" I thought. That is the only place in London that I was aware of possessing witches and wizards. I also remembered Harry, Ron and Hermione. They were staying there too. All I had to do is get their help, but I had no idea of how I'll manage it. How could I get their attention when I can't be seen? It was impossible, but I had to give it a try.

Leaky Cauldron was twenty blocks away from my house. I was already tiered of walking the whole day, the disappearing thing must have taken allot of energy out of me, because I felt like I was working for a month nonstop. My eyelids were shutting, as I ran. I think I was sleeping while I ran, and I awoke while flying down to the ground because of bumping into someone.

The hit between my butt and the cemented sidewalk was not pleasant. I was happy that no one would see me. The though that they will think that they are going insane was comforting; however, I wanted to know who I stopped. As my eyes rose to look at the figure before me, I saw the figure's eyes looking back at my direction. It was a man of sickly appearances. He was of middle height, with light brown hair, blue eyes, and a mustache, dressed in jeans and a green T-shirt.

"I believe you are the one we're looking for." He gave me his hand to help me up.

"You can see me?" I asked him.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I? I got to admit I didn't see you running into me even

though I was looking your way." He chuckled.

"Well, I was invisible." His smile was wiped out from his face and he gave me a

serious look.

"Professor Lupin, Remus Lupin. I teach Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts."

"Nice meeting you. I'm Katie Mal." I met his hand and shook it. His seriousness was gone just the same as it had came. He gently looked at me, and I remembered mother with her soft smile. I couldn't hold back the tears that appeared in my eyes and slowly rolled down my cheeks.

He embraced me, and his embrace was warm and inviting. I was lost within his hug. It reminded me of my father, and how he held me when I was little. I often fell asleep in his hands, as I did within the hands of my professor.

"I do not know why, but Voldemort wants her for something. We need to keep her safe. There is only a week left before the start of term. I can take her to Hogwarts now, but..."

"I don't want to go to Hogwarts before everyone else," I declared. The four men that stood before the door to the room I was residing in looked at me. One of them that was talking just moments earlier smiled. He had a long silvery beard, and his hair hang low and fell to his back. He gazed at me from his half moon spectacles and slowly walked to my bed. The other three, one of them was Professor Lupin, just watched the old man.

"For how long were you awake?" He asked. His appearance was of an old wizard, his voice, however, was of a young man.

"Not long, but long enough to hear that you want to take me to Hogwarts before everyone else."

He motioned me to move a bit, and so I did. He placed his body at the side of the bed. He sat there for a long time not saying anything. He examined me closely. His eyes moved from my hair, to my eyes, and to the rest of my face.

"I don't want to take away a week of happiness from you, my dear. I found out that you made friends with Ron, Harry, and Hermione. Nice little bunch, are they not?" I nodded and he continued, "I will gladly leave you here until the first of September and meet you at the Start of Term Feast, but you have to promise me that you won't enter the muggle world nor leave Diagon Alley."

"Why?"

"You see, as you experienced today the tragedy of your mother's death, you yourself are not save anywhere where you can't be seen."

"My mother!" I screamed, "I need to see her!"

"It's three o'clock in the morning, missy," a hushed voice had said. I turned from the old man to see who droped the words to me. A tall man with greasy black hair and black eyes walked up to us. I hadn't seen him before. He wasn't one of the three men by the door. However, they were not by the door still, but gathered about my bed.

"Severus cut the girl some slack," one of the three had said. Severus didn't say anything back, but just gave them a look of contempt. He grabbed a near by chair and sat upon it by my side.

"Well, maybe I should introduce you to these four lovely gentlemen, and myself included," the old man had said. I didn't know how the other three would be, but Severus was definitely way from lovely.

The wizard with the long beard pointed his index finger at a bolding man with hazel eyes. Although he was loosing hair, some of his red locks still showed.

"This is Arthur Weasley. He works in the Ministry of Magic. Maybe you can help him. He's fascinated by muggles."

"Hello," I said shyly.

"This is Sirius Black," a man of thirty-five stood before me. He was still young, but his hair was almost fully silver. He had brown eyes, and they were melancholy and tiered. He gave me a smile.

"Nice meeting you," he said.

"I think you already met Professor Lupin," I looked at him once again, and our eyes met. Every time I looked at him a warm wave passed my body.

"This is Professor Snape, and he's the potion teacher." I looked at the man that was sited before my bed on a wooden chair.

"Nice meeting you," he growled.

"You know Professor, I don't even know you, and you're treating me like I'm responsible for all your misfortunes. It's not nice to greed your future student in such a manner," I said matter-of-factly. He looked at me dumbfounded, as did all the others. I saw Harry's head pocking out of the doorframe along with Ron's. They smirked at me with glee. I suppose they hated the potion professor.

"Well, young lady, you'll find out that I'm most unwelcome with my new acquaintances," Professor Snape had said to me, looking rather disturbed.

" That's a pity. I'll take that into consideration," I simply answered. He raised off his stool and walked to exit the room.

"Severus, we still have to discus the matter!" Mr. Black said to him. The potion's professor leaned against the wall by the door, and with a wave of his wand closed it to the great disappointment of Harry and Ron.

"Well, I see you have a mind of your own. I'm Professor Dumbledore." I looked at him with surprise and eager. He was the man mother wrote the letter to. He was the man who answered "Don't Worry."

"Albus Dumbledore!" I exclaimed.

"It's nice that you know the man," Severus rolled his eyes. I ignored his comment.

"Mother wrote you a letter, this very night. Is it the same night?" I asked quickly.

"Yes, yes, it is. I did receive a letter from your mother."

"You said that there was nothing to worry about!" I was beginning to feel angry.

"Yes I did. I didn't think that Voldemort would attack your house tonight. She said in her letter it was only a cat that startled you two."

"You knew that someone was after me, and still you took no precautions until it was too late! You could have placed a protective charm or something of that sort. You are the greatest wizard of the century, are you not?" The whole room looked at me with concern.

"We did place charms at your house," Mr. Weasley said, "however, Voldemort had other means of entering that we didn't take into consideration."

"You should have sent us away some place!"

"We did and he found you anyways!" Professor Snape shouted, "you are the most arrogant witch on the planet. You think all the work we did here was for nothing?"

"I wouldn't know, no one filled me in. Perhaps if I knew, everything would have turned to be different." It was pure hatred that shined in the pupils of my eyes when looking at Snape. He looked at me for a long time and then retrieved, as if he saw someone in me that he never expected.

"I'm sorry," I apologized, "and I'm just confused and scared. Something as this only happens in the movies. I never expected something as this happening to me." I gathered my face within my hands and placed my head upon my knees. The warm tears poured out of my eyes. I felt a hand upon my shoulder and looked up. It was only Dumbledore that remained with me, everyone else departed.

"Take rest, and we'll talk about everything in the morning," and with this he left me in the darkness of the night. I berried my face within the pillow and sobbed. Suddenly my door opened and I saw Harry and Rom creeping towards me.

"Wow, that was bloody brilliant the way you told of Snape," seeing me his smile went off and he looked worried, "what's wrong?"

I couldn't hold back the pain and anger that build within my heart. This was the final straw. My crying became louder and my breath was uneven. He gently pooled away my hair and embraced me.

"Shhh, calm down. Don't worry, you'll be fine."

In a couple of minutes my door opened once more, and Hermione entered. She walked to the bed and looked at us with concern.

"Here I brought you some water," she said handing me a cup of clear water. I took a sip and tried to even out my breath.

"She looks dreadful," I heard Harry say to Hermione.

"What happened?"

My breathing was finally restored to its normal state and I told them every thing that happened to me that night. They listened to me carefully, not missing a single word or phrase that I had spoken. We sat silently for a while, and then out of nowhere Harry exclaimed,

"What does Voldemort wants with you? He wants me that I'm positive with, but why you?" I was puzzled.

"What do you mean, he wants you?"

"He wants me dead!"

"But why?

All three of them looked at me like I was from the planet Mars.

"Because Harry is 'The Boy Who Lived.'"

"Didn't you know that?" Ron asked. I looked at him and shook my head.

"Wow! You hear that Harry? You're not famous in whatever country she lived in. People there don't even know you exist." He laughed and so did Harry.

"Well, everyone knows about you, it's just I didn't bother to know your name because I thought it was your mother that vanquished him."

"Really, I think so too." Harry said excitedly. "People don't even know what went on at the time, but because I survived and he didn't they make me famous. That's pathetic."

"This is our last year at Hogwarts, and who knows what will happen. Our lives were a massacre since we entered Hogwarts, but the last two years were especially hectic," Ron told me. He began the story of the years at Hogwarts. He told me about their first Defense Against the Dark Arts' professor. He mentioned that Harry saved his little sister from Tom Riddle and killed the Basilisk. He also said about Black being a murderer, but it wasn't him that killed 13 people with one curse but their other friend. Harry and Hermione save him, but Ron didn't know how. Voldemort came back in their fourth year and killed one student. Harry barely escaped. Ron's dad was attacked at their fifth year, but thanks to Harry's dreams Mr. Weasley was saved. There was some kind of a prophecy that Harry was looking for, and there was a battle, and Black died behind a veil.

"Wait, wait," I stopped him, "what do you mean Black died? Wasn't it Sirius Black that was introduced to just a moment ago?"

"You didn't let me finish the story. Last year Harry and I went to that place. We found the veil, thrown rocks to it and things such as this. They just disappeared within the veil and that was it. However we heard voices and muttering and one of them voices was of Black. We couldn't distinguish of what they spoke of; all we heard were muffled conversations. Before I knew it Harry ran into the veil. I followed him."

"It was like a different dimension!" Harry exclaimed, "it was wicked!"

"Ya! You won't believe of what we saw. There were so many different people!"

"I saw Black and he walked up to me. 'What are you doing here?' He asked me. I was astonished! He was alive and well."

"This is how the conversation went:" Ron had said and Harry began playing the role of Black, and Ron was Harry.

_"You idiots! What have you done?"_

"We came to save you! I knew you were not dead. I just felt it. The other day I felt the mirror you gave calling me. When I got to it, it lay motionless."

"Harry, do you relies of what you've done? You committed suicide, no better word for it!"

"What are you talking about? We'll just get out the way we came from."

"You can't! There is no veil on this side, only doors that drive one insane!"

" We looked around, and he wasn't lying," Ron commented and they went back to their conversation,

_"Wow, what's behind them?"_

"Monsters, riddles, other things! I've been here a year and look what happened!"

"What?"

"Nothing! I'm still here."

"We quarreled for a long time and finally made a plan. We opened all the doors and answered all the questions and found the answers to all the riddles."

"We fought bloody battles!" Ron interrupted Harry.

"At the end the veil appeared and we slipped out."

"What about the others?"

"Well, they didn't want to go. They were used to that place, so they didn't wish to leave. They thought it was much more inviting."

"Was it?"

"No way! Are you kidding? It was just a round room with bunch of doors!" Ron exclaimed, "bloody barrel of sardines!"

"Sure, you had anything you wished for, but it got boring after a while."

The boys began discussing their brilliant fights, and how they outsmarted dragons and a werewolf. I wasn't interested in their bragging. However, I got to admit; they did lift my mood up. I was happy, very happy. I shifted my gaze from the boys to Hermione who was sitting in the corner quietly. I came up to her.

"Where were you when all of the saving happened?" I asked her.

"Nowhere!" She answered, "I'm tiered of this and it's nearly morning. I want to go to bad." With this she stormed out of the room.

"What did I say?"

"Nothing, don't worry."

"Well, we were fine just a moment ago. She seemed to like me in Diagon Alley. I thought we could get along."

"Ron's right, Katie, don't worry about it. It's her temper. She gets angry at one moment and sweet at the next."

"Maybe she's bipolar!" Ron laughed. Harry gave a chuckle.

Sleepiness overtook me once again and I gave a yawn.

"Well, we better leave you to sleep. You must be tiered." Ron and Harry went to the door, "We'll see you this morning," Ron added before leaving and they slipped out of the room.

"I know new people are interesting, but you got to let them sleep at 4:30 in the morning!" I heard Snape's voice behind the door.

"Sorry professor, we just had to talk to her. We're leaving now. Good night," Harry responded.

"More like good morning," Snape sneered.

Two doors opened and slammed closed. As soon as I placed my head on to the pillow, I fell into a peaceful slumber.

. .

Here, I posted this chapter a wile ago, but I would like to thank my reviewers. Feel free to tell me my bad points because I like to improve them. Please pass my story to your friends, as I wish to know what they think. Thanks To All!


	7. New Acquaintances

****

Chapter 6

New Acquaintances

The warm light fell upon my face. I didn't wish to get up. I wanted to see who he was. I wanted to finish my dream, but the man walked further and further away from me. Some kind of white light covered over him. I was beginning to feel kind of hot and small droplets of sweat appeared on my forehead. I was watching myself standing in some kind of a desert and watching a figure of a man leaving me. I couldn't run, all I did was shout after him. Who was the man I was yelling to?

The picture of my dream changed to a park with green bushy trees. I heard the singing of birds and the thumping of the water droplets on a metal can. I opened my eyes and saw a huge room pained in light pink. There was another bed besides mine. Covers carefully lay upon it along with two pillows. There was a table in the corner by the door. My window was open, and the sun slipped to my bed and warmed me to my awakening.

I raised my arms above my head and pointed my toes. I gave a long stretch. Jumping off the bed I ran to take a look outside. It was a sunny day. I could tell that it was raining a bit earlier. I glanced at the sun. According to it, and if I was not mistaking, it was about one o'clock in the afternoon. I shifted my eyes to the clock that hang on one of the four walls. It read one thirty.

"I slept the day away," I thought, "I should have wakened up hours ago." I was an early riser. Mum never had to drag me out of bed. I was always up by eight. Yesterday must have taken its toll on me.

I took another look at the room. The chair that was occupied by Severus Snape, just this night, was now covered by midnight blue robes. I picked them up and placed them before me. They were of my size. I didn't bother taking off the muggle cloths. I just slipped the robes over me. A small mirror was hanging on the door. I picked up a brush that lay on the light table along with a hairpin. I ran to the mirror, brushed my hair, and with the use of the pin moved them away from my face.

I made my bed presentable and walked out of the chamber. There were many voices all about me. Some were down the stairs, others at my left, and still some were at my right.

"No way, we can't!" I heard Hermione's voice from the nearby room.

"We should just wake her up. She slept for hours!"

"Ron, wouldn't you like to take a long rest after the events that happened to her yesterday?"

"I don't know. Maybe I would, but it's one thirty!"

"She should be left alone even if it would be six in the evening."

"What if she died?"

"She didn't die, as your mother checked on her just an hour ago."

"What was she doing there?"

"She said that the room needed fresh air, so she opened the window. Seriously Ron, go do your homework. Have you written the essay for Professor Lupin?"

I walked to the doorframe and peered inside. Ron was sitting on the floor concentrating on something. Hermione was lying on her stomach upon the bed and reading a book.

"We have an excuse."

"What kind of an excuse, Ron?"

"We were fighting and protecting everyone. We just hadn't any time."

"First of all you didn't do such a thing, as no one allowed you to do anything. Second of all no one is excused from any kind of work not even us!"

"I have to deal with this every single day. They can go at it for hours." I turned my head to see Harry standing behind me with a very beautiful girl with flaming red hair.

"Hi Harry!" I waved at him and then looked ant the girl, "Sorry, I don't know you."

"This is Ginny," Harry introduced her to me. She stretched out her hand, and I met it with my own.

"I'm Katie. Are you Ron's sister?"

"Yap," she answered. I observed the girl that stood before me. She had gorges hair, and brown eyes. Her skin was almost white. Faintly visible freckles covered her face. She had a flower for a mouth of a gentle pink color. Her complexion was delicate. She was a bit smaller then myself, and I was only five, three.

"What are you guys doing here?" Ron asked us, as he walked out of the room. I

looked at him and our eyes met. He blushed a little.

"Oh good morning, Katie!" He added.

"More like good afternoon," Hermione said cheerfully, "did you have a nice rest?"

"Ya. I don't know what got into me. I'm usually up by this time of the day."

"It's ok. Dumbledore was kind of worried about you at first, but everyone reassured him that you were fine. He wasn't convinced, so he has sent mum to check on you." Ron began rambling. He was talking very fast, and I barely comprehended the words he was saying.

"More like you were worried;" Hermione said rolling her eyes. Every one else giggled, and Ron went as red as his hair.

"Are you hungry?" Ginny looked at me smiling. I nodded.

"Lets go to the kitchen, mum would have made something for lunch by now. I'm hungry myself!" Ron exclaimed.

"I can't deny the fact that I can go away with some food, too" Harry rubbed his tummy. Hermione and Ginny walked behind us. They were discussing the vampire theories. I couldn't quite hear them, so I shifted my attention on Ron and Harry once again.

"...flying cars! Can you imagine if everyone had them? It would be bloody brilliant. I love flying cars. However, with our little adventure in the Ford, dad doesn't want to experiment with such magic. He must have gotten a very bad shake. I think I'll make the next one!"

"Make sure it flies better and has no problem being invisible. As for me, I would like to keep to my broom."

"Ya brooms are faster! You must be good on a broom, are you not Katie?"

"Well," I turned a little pink, "I never been on a broom."

"What?" The two boys shouted looking astonished. We even stopped walking, and the two girls behind us bumped into us.

"What's going on?" Hermione asked annoyed.

"This girl never had been on a broom!" Rom pointed at me. Hermione gave him an aggravated look.

"I never had been on a broom besides Madam Hooch's class. I don't like broomsticks;" She said matter-of-factly and passed through us to disappear in the kitchen. Ginny followed her.

"Have you held a flying broom before?" Harry asked.

"Nope," I answered simply and also walked passed them and entered the kitchen.

"Amazing," I heard behind me.

The kitchen was located in the basement. Apart from the rest of the house it was dreadful and depressing. It was a cavernous room with rough stone walls. There was a long table in the middle of it. The walls were bare but occasionally drawers and cabinets occupied the gloomy panels. There were no windows and the only thing illuminating the room was an old hearth in which an inviting fire burned with extreme passion. Iron pots and pans were hanging from the dark ceiling floating in the thin smoke that hang in the air.

A woman of forty with curly red hair was standing before a stove, backed turned our way. She was humming to herself, and I made a check that she has no musical hearing. She was well round along the middle, but not too much. Her dress was knitted of different bright colors. It harmonized well with her hair and jewelry that she was wearing. Muggles call it costume jewelry, the most inexpensive of all.

Two boys were drinking tea and eating biscuits. They also had the red hair. They were twins and appeared to be very jolly. They talked with each other about something of great importance. Mischief sparkled within their eyes. The moment we entered, they stopped talking and looked at us.

"Look Ma, the bunnies are here," one of the twins had said.

"Ya the little darlings," the other one added. The squat woman turned around and smiled at me.

"Hello dearies," she addressed us all, "hungry?" We all nodded. Our heads were practically falling off our shoulders.

"They look like baby seals! George, do you think they'll make good pets at the circus? We can turned them into pets and then sell them. What do you thin?

"It's a wonderful idea, Fred. I'll go get the magical candy." He began rising off his chair.

"You'll do no such thing! When will you two grow up? I'm tiered of your foolish behavior. When will you become two grown and well-rounded gentlemen?"

"Well mother, you see, according to Lucius Malfoy we, the Weasleys, are never going to become presentable." I flinched at the name of Lucius Malfoy.

The squat woman shouted at them at the top of her lungs, "and you are ok with that! Get out of my sight you two! Get out, now!" The twins ran away from her as if a mad dog was chasing them. Ginny, Hermione, Harry, Ron, and I sat about the table and carefully listened to the quarrel.

"What are you five smirking about?"We didn't answered and all of our eyes fell to the floor. "Ron, call everyone to the table; we'll be having lunch." Ron stood up and disappeared from my sight. "You three," she pointed at Hermione, Ginny, and I, "place the dishes to the table. Harry fill in the cups with the cold lemonade."

"Where is the lemonade, Mrs. Weasley?"

"Over there in the right cabinet. I placed a cooling charm on it, so it would keep everything cold. It is surprisingly hot this August." She wiped her hands on a towel and placed it over her shoulder.

Hermione took out plates, forks, knives, spoons, and other eating utensils and handed them to Ginny and me. We quickly carried them to the table and arranged them so each chair has one of each. Harry placed the drinks for each chair as well, and the woman moved the bread from the upper shelf of the cabinet to the table with a simple wave of her wand.

Soon the table was ready, but there was no sign of Ron or anyone else.

"Where can that boy be?" The woman asked.

"Excuse me," I called her. She looked at me with her light gray eyes and smiled.

"Yes dear."

"What is your name? I feel kind of awkward not knowing who you are."

"Oh, how stupid of me. I'm Molly, Molly Weasley. I'm Ginny and Ron's mother." She said and smiled once more.

"I'm Katie. Nice to meet you."

"Same here, dear. We'll have a meeting after lunch, and you have to attend it."

"Wow, can we go, too?"

"No Harry, dear. It doesn't involve you."

"But come one Mrs. Wesley. We're old enough. I'm seventeen already. I'm of age!

"You are still in school, and you know the rules."

"But she's going," he pointed at me.

"Because it involves her, and everyone else in the Order, but not you."

"If you allowed me, it would have concerned me."

"Harry, stop being a baby." Ginny finally exclaimed.

"I'm not a baby."

"They are coming in just a minute," Ron said entering the kitchen and sitting at the right of me. Harry sat at the left, then Ginny, followed by Hermione. In a couple of minutes the room was becoming full of people. There was Sirius Black, and Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, a very cheerful witch that I had no idea of who she was, and elderly witch with strict appearances, and a very big man with a bushy beard. Then entered the twins, two men with the same red hair, and Arthur Weasley.

They picked a chair and rested upon it. Before me sat Professor Snape. He was studying me carefully, and I concentrated all of my attention on him, as well, until the gagging noise from my right broke away my attentiveness.

"Are you ok Ron?" I hit him on the back couple of times to help the lemonade turn back to the right channel.

"I'm fine;" he answered in a moment. His voice suddenly turned into a whisper and I bend down closer to him, to hear of what he spoke. "What is Snape doing here?"

"Eating, I presume."

"That's what I thought. He never eats with us. Never stays with us either. I wonder what he's doing here."

"Oh Snape! Are you going to join us today?" Mrs. Weasley asked in a sweet

voice. Snape glared at her and grunted.

"Is it a problem?"

"No! Not at all! You just never stay with us. I was just wondering..." Mrs.

Weasley was getting redder by the minute. She was lost by Snape's question and was embarrassed by her own question as well.

"Well, since the meeting is going to be held in just a wile, I see no reason to leave. Besides," he looked at me; "this young lady can be a handful." I didn't know what he meant by that, but his black eyes were like two dirty puddles of secrets. I looked at his hands, and one of the sleeves of his robes was slightly raised so the bottom of his arm revealed itself. Some kind of a mark was drawn on it. It was of a scull through which a serpent revealed its head from one of the eyes. He followed my gaze and quickly covered his arm.

"You've let her escape!"

"I didn't! She just disappeared!"

The image of the two men sparked before me. I distinctly saw their expressions and their movements. I saw their garments, their wands, and the first man's arm.

"That mark!" I thought and slightly jumped off the chair. Nervously my eyes raised to Severus. His look was perplexed. "No way!" I again began talking to myself, "it can't be! What is he doing here? He is a traitor! He is one of them! He wants me out! He'll still me in the night and will bring me to those two that killed my mother!"

"Ron," I whispered.

"What?"

"Did you know that Snape was a Death Eater?"

"Ya."

"What is he doing here then?"

"Well, he used to be a Death Eater in the old days, but something made him betray You-Know-Who. Now, he is a spy for Dumbledore."

Mrs. Weasley passed behind us. She gave us a bowl of soup. Ron and I thanked her and began ravenously eating it. I got to admit that Mrs. Weasley was a very good cook. Even mum had some problems making tasteful food at times. There were tomatoes, cucumbers, onion rings, and other vegetables on the round plates for everyone that fancied them.

For a wile the only thing that could be heard at the table were the beating of spoons against the plates and the knocking of goblets upon the table. I suppose everyone was coming with terms with everything that took place in the last two days. I know for a fact that Mrs. Weasley was scared of something, as she paled with every second after Mr. Weasley whispered into her ear, so only she could hear.

"This was delicious!" Harry ejaculated.

"Yes it was. Thanks Molly! You made another fabulous meal like you always do!" The cheerful witch had said while placing her plate into the sink and knocking off the vase off the counter.

"Tonks, leave it be. I'll clean it up later."

"Oh sorry! I'll take care of it!" She placed her hand into the pocket of her robes.

"No, really! I'll clean it up, as I said." Mrs. Weasley shouted and quickly got off of her chair.

Suddenly the kitchen door opened, and Albus Dumbledore entered the room. He looked quite happy about something.

"Uh, good afternoon!"

"Is it really that good?" Sirius asked.

"Did you come up with the result to the problem?" Mr. Weasley burst out.

"We'll talk about it later. The meeting is just moments away. Besides I can't pass the opportunity to lunch on such wonderful meals that Molly makes." He sat down at the head of the table. A colorful plate appeared before him with a clown like goblet. Mrs. Weasley ran to pour him some soup, and everyone looked at him flabbergasted. The atmosphere changed from the usual every day lunch period to a tense and demanding environment. All the tense energy gave me a chill.

"Ah Miss. Mal how are you this morning?"

"I wouldn't know sir about the morning, but I'm quite well this afternoon, thank you for asking. How are you yourself?"

"Oh well, well. No problems getting along with everyone is there?"

"Not with the ones my own age, however, I don't know the adults or barely spoke to them." I answered. Harry looked at me, as if I was out of my mind. I didn't quite get why. I was just talking, and I was polite.

"That can be arranged. We all are going to explain everything to you at the meeting, and you'll be informed with the names of the people that you can trust."

"Professor?" I heard Ginny say in a low but firm voice.

"Yes, Miss. Weasley."

"Can we attend this meeting? I mean just until you start talking about the

important things like your next actions or whatever you're going to do. I know you are going to send Katie out before the meeting will be over."

"You are a clever girl. Indeed the meeting will continue after Miss Mal departs the quarters. You all can stay until that time." Ron, Harry, Ginny, and Hermione beamed with delight.

"Thanks!" All four of them yelled in unison.

"Keep quiet you four!" Mrs. Weasley hissed. A wave of laughter passed about the table at that comment.

"However, Harry and Professor Snape will not be joining us."

"Oh come on professor. Can you make an exception just this once?" Harry looked horrible. He was so upset, as if he'll die in just moments. I glanced back at Dumbledore he shook his head indicating no. Harry growled.

"Your studies with Professor Snape are more important than the meeting that

we'll take place today."

"But professor,"

"My decision is final. I do not wish to hear any more questions about it or any more pleadings." Harry leaped from his chair and stormed out of the room. I could still hear the whistling of wind from Harry's robes. Hermione and I exchanged worried looks, but she quickly removed her gaze from me.

Finally everyone was done with his or her own meal, and Mrs. Weasley cleaned up the table. Professor Snape followed Harry moments after lunch was over, and I heard the slamming of a heavy door not far away from the kitchen. Each looked at Dumbledore waiting for his next actions. He cleared his throat and began filling us in with the news he gathered.

"Well, the best way to start out our meeting is by introducing the girl to everyone else and introducing us to the girl. You already met Mr. Weasley, Mr. Black, Professor Lupin, and myself. There is Mrs. Weasley;" he pointed at the red haired woman that made lunch. Her features were so loving that it was no surprise she had so many children and loved them all. I assumed that all the red haired people were her own. "I suppose you met her already. You met Miss Granger, a seventh year at Hogwarts, so lets start with the Weasley's family. You met Ron and Ginny. Both attend Hogwarts; Ron is in his seventh year, and Ginny will be in her sixth. Both are in Griffindor along with Hermione and Harry. The twins finished the school two years ago and now are in the Order. Fred and George, they are called. If I might add their clever inventions are rather useful for the Order." Fred and George beamed with delight at that statement.

"Nice to meet you! You can be our next volunteer to try our latest invention."

"I don't know about volunteering, but I gladly help you make whatever you are making."

"You hear that George?"

"I certainly do, Fred."

"We gladly make you our apprentice," they said in unison, and I couldn't help but laugh at their remark.

"That will be enough you two," Mrs. Weasley said, her temper rising a bit.

"Here is Bill, and he comes from Egypt."

"Egypt! Wow! I always wanted to go there. I'm fascinated by the pyramids. They hold so many secrets. Did you work on the pyramids or had a different position?" I asked him.

"I did work with the pyramids at times, but mostly I was occupied with Gringotts Bank. However, I can share some of the things I know about the pyramids with you."

"Thanks!"

"Well, this is Charley, and he studied dragons before he got here."

_"...Now you, my dear, have the power with dragons and serpents..." _I remembered Mr. Ollivander telling me at the wand shop. I didn't want to create a big deal out of that comment, so I decided to talk to Charley about dragons sometime later, when he'll be alone. I just looked at him and nodded in the understanding of who he was and what he did.

"Now, this young witch is Nymphadora Tonks." He pointed at a very chipper witch with red hair that broke the vase before Dumbledore joined us.

"I prefer to be called just Tonks."

"Yes indeed she does. Well this is Professor McGonagall; she's your transfiguration's teacher." The eldest witch out of all looked at me with her cat like gray eyes, nodded, and turned back to face Dumbledore. "This is Hagrid;" he pointed at the giant with a very dark bushy beard.

"Nice meeting you," he stretched out his arm, as now he sat in the same seat that was previously occupied by Severus Snape. I stretched out my own hand and thought that he'll break my bones. But his shake was gentle and warm.

"We of course have more people, but they do not live here, so you'll get to know them later on. We must go on to the other things now. I've been at the Ministry of Magic," everyone sneered and he continued, "everyone tells me that Katie's mother committed suicide." I jumped off my chair.

"What? How stupid! They think that she cursed herself for no reason? How can she? The curse does not work on the performer! They should know that! Who runs the Ministry these days?"

"Katie calm down!" Ron told me.

"Miss Mal, they are neither stupid nor blind. They know that your mother was killed, however, they don't want anyone to panic; therefore, they make up stories. Please control your emotions, as these kinds of things happen often in here." Dumbledore said with a gentle voice. I dropped myself back to the chair, and he continued, "they took the body to the wizard morgue and handed the house to her daughter. You are the owner of everything on that property," he looked at me.

"What about my owl?"

"She's fine! She's at the school, as we speak." I gave a sigh of relief. "Even though the house is yours, you are not safe there; therefore it would be sold."

"I do not mind, as I wouldn't be able to live in it anyways." He gave me a nod.

"Furthermore we need to change your identity. No one must know who you are.

We'll have to change your appearances of course to suit your new family."

"How are you going to change me?" I asked kind of worried.

"No need to worry, We will just use a simple charm. Professor McGonagall and myself knows very nice spells that..."

"Neither charms nor spells work on me," I shouted not fully aware of the volume with witch I spoke. Everyone looked at my direction; my statement surprised even Dumbledore.

"What are you inferring too exactly?" An old witch with a square face and quite strict appearances asked me very puzzled but with sympathy and care. I looked strait to her eyes and didn't shift my gaze from one person to the next. I was in a firm believe that no magic in the world could change the way I was. It was impossible!

"Back home part of our Transfiguration class was to change your own appearances. I tried countless times with millions of spells. I wasn't the best with the regular transfigurations, but I wasn't the worst out the lot. My skills were average, and the students with average skills managed to change themselves quite professionally. It was impossible to guess who they were. It's strange how simple hair color and eye colors change, adds and removes a couple of different moods and personalities to and from a person."

"Well, maybe it wasn't your gift to change your own form. Many people are unlikely to have this kind of power," she continued.

"I know, but my teacher managed to change everyone besides me. I don't know why." I saw all of them exchange glances.

"Mum, we can turn her into a really ugly girl, with many defects like the hunchback of Notre Dame." George or Fred exclaimed and loosened up the tension that billed in within the crowded kitchen. Everyone gave a short laugh except Mrs. Weasley that looked as if she'll burst at any minute.

"That's it! I've had it! You two are out of here! NOW!"

"We are in the Order. You can't do anything to us!"

"If your foolishness is going to continue, Lupin and myself personally will take care of you. This is series and not a laughing matter." Harry's godfather had exclaimed and the two boys retrieved into the shadows.

"We'll try. Lets see," Dumbledore took out his wand and pointed it at my hair and mumbled faintly distinguishable incantation. I think what he said was _Abeo Ut Rutilus_. Red sparks flew out of his wand and encircled my hair. They shined for a long time as everyone looked at me. When they settled down, Dumbledore looked puzzled. I flipped down my hair and looked at it. My locks were still golden.

"That's interesting," he finally said, "that spell changes everything to the color that is indicated."

"I've told you."

"No matter, we made a potion as well. It will change your hair to whatever strand of color was placed in it. The eyes will be the choice of the potion, but they'll be different from your own."

"That a shame," Ron said, "she has beautiful eyes."

"Can't we leave them?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"No, as they can reveal her whole identity." He took out a vile from his robes with a dark red liquid within it and placed it before me. "You should drink it now and close your eyes. I'll mutter a spell so the owls that will be sent to you will only bring the letters to your new acquired name and not the old. You must forget your real name for now, as you can't use it until Voldemort is dead." As he mentioned the name some of the people flinched others just rolled their eyes at those who flinched. I reacted indifferently. My trembling hands lifted the vile and removed the cork. I placed it to my lips and tipped it over into my mouth. It was bitter as if eating soap. My vision began to bluer and I began to see butterflies. I quickly closed my eyes, so I wouldn't get sick. Somewhere in the distance I heard the low voice of Professor Dumbledore, but I couldn't hear the words he spoke.

Finally I stabilized to my normal self, and immediately heard the whole room gasp.

. .

Great Thanks to ShadowStar21, Hippie1212, kay345, Nadin, Emma-Kitty, fcuking cathy. I can't wait to hear what all of you are going to say about this chapter and the once that will follow.

I also want to inform you that the updates will be coming a bit slower because I have so many ideas that I'm not sure how to tie them all in.

Please share this story with your friends and family! I would really enjoy reading their reviews, and I'm not that picky for a bit of flames, however, be lenient.

Thanks Again to All!


	8. Trapped

****

Chapter 7

Trapped

The only light that managed to enter the dark chamber was coming from the crevasses in the wooden roof. The old wooden palettes were rotten to the core becoming a shelter to many night insects that roamed about the place. The rays that slipped into the room were firstly filtered through the heavyset leaves upon the ancient branches of the forest.

The old bungalow was located in the depth of the thick forest that allowed no one to enter or leave. It was impossible to find your way out if the enchanted trees made way for you to enter, and impossible to enter if the trees wished not of your presents. However, nothing was unattainable for the Dark Lord and his followers. If he wished for something, he received it. But the Lord knew that his life was challenged by a mere child, and he didn't wish to rest until the day Harry Potter was eliminated from the face of the Earth, and he found it very difficult to manage.

The "run down shed", as Voldemort referred to his dwelling, was used during the Goblin Revolution by a colony of wizards. It was constructed as an armory and the secret headquarters. The portion upon the ground was purposely made to resemble an old abandoned house, as the underground section contained the most advanced weapons, the most roomy dungeons, and a shelter for the once that were hunted. It was also famous for the fountain of truth and memory reader, but there were no one left that has seen it.

It was long forgotten and abandoned after the war. The maps and secret codes were burned and destroyed. It remained a simple tale for the kids that were tolled by their parents by the bonfire. Even the greatest wizards had any idea of it's existence, Voldemort, however, did.

Because of the large amount of dungeons and many underground passages it made a suitable location for the Dark Lord. He was safe from the outside world and had time to plan his great entrance into society.

Voldemort came back three years ago, but prolonged his reentrance. He wished to be rid of Harry Potter before his great arrival. However, it was impossible to get him at Hogwarts. He was always watched and was never left alone. Besides Voldemort didn't wish to create nuisance in the school, as he was cautious of Dumbledore. During the summers he had no idea of Harry's whereabouts. Harry didn't live with the Dursleys anymore at Privet Drive. It was the fourth summer that passed without knowing where he was. Harry's essence disappeared with each departure of Hogwarts Express at the end of term.

Voldemort was sitting in a leather chair that stood in the middle of the room. He was closely observing the house elves dusting the cabinets and scrubbing the floor. The ray that passed through the cracks in the roof spilled on to his gray skin, and his red eyes shined with hatred.

Suddenly a door from the dungeons flung open and a small figure appeared within the frame.

"Nice of you to join me! Have you received the answers?" The little man was avoiding eye contact. His pupils ran from one corner to the next. The muscle under his left eye slowly began twitching. He couldn't formulate a word.

"Well!?" Voldemort shouted and banged his fist on to the chair handle. The impact between his bony but powerful hand and the handle created a loud thud. His voice ran through the room and got tangled with the tiny water particles in the humid air.

"Well master...we are..." the trembling man began, but was interrupted by a cold voice.

"First of all you're not a house elf so do not infer to me as 'master'. To my Death Eaters I'm Lord; however, if you wish to become a house elf in all its disgusting ways, I can arrange it for you." He raised his wand and pointed the tip of it strait at the figure that was slowly backing away.

"No my Lord, I wish to be your faithful servant."

"Good! Now, Pettigrew, what are the circumstances with the girl?" He stressed the importance on the name, Pettigrew. Voldemort fully knew that the man didn't wish to be called by that name. It reminded him of his betrayal.

"Nothing had been discovered, my Lord. Nothing that you seek that is!" He quickly added seeing the horrible expression on his Lord's face. He clearly remembered the Cruciatus Curse that Voldemort placed on him at the beginning of the mission.

_"What have you discovered?"_

"Nothing my Lord."

"Nothing? Finding out nothing is telling me that you're going nothing. If you are doing nothing, then you're not following my orders. This deserves a punishment.

Pettigrew remembered the pain that penetrated his body. He felt it that very moment within his own thoughts, dreading the instant that would make not only his thoughts feel it, but his body as well.

"What was the last thing you found out?"

"How she became red, my Lord."

"That disgusting color did not suite her. She didn't mention anything that can help us?"

"No my Lord."

"This is taking forever!" Voldemort threw his goblet at the door barely missing Pettigrew.

"Maybe you should go and check her yourself. She might be persuaded to flip some memories away."

"You fool! We can't skip anything that went on before we got her. She can possess the most voluble information at the most unimportant memory! However, I'll go and check them myself. What did I expect from a week of work? She does possess powerful genes." He smirked and began walking towards the open door.

Both of them descended into the dungeons. A bright silvery light glowed from one of the many chambers. It was the last at the hall and the most roomy of all. In the middle stood a cylindrical tube that stretched from the ceiling to the floor with a diameter of two meters. It was filled with clear water. The bottom was illuminating the entire chamber. The silver light danced gracefully from the source, up the water, and entered the linings upon the ceiling creating a spider web design.

Voldemort came up to the cylinder and placed his hand upon the thick glass. His long yellow fingernails began tapping upon it. He closely examined the beautiful girl that slept within the water. Her face was soft and gentle. Her eyes were closed and taken over by many dreams. Her pale lips were shut and motionless. He skin pallid almost blue. Her long blond hair curled about her. She was wearing an ice blue dress that now flew weightlessly about her body. A big diamond encircled by an emerald serpent was glowing on her fourth finger.

"Give me the name and place and you would go free. It would be a pity to spend the rest of your life trapped in a bottle. You'll waist away your beauty." Voldemort hissed; his red eyes flashed with desire.

"My Lord, the place is ready." Voldemort turned around and walked to the pedestal. There were many lights that glowed upon it. His bony palms occupied two hand imprints. Pettigrew carefully balanced a jewel upon his Lord's head that immediately began to glow.

"Lets begin," Voldemort whispered, as the girls eyelids began to tremble, and her dreams overtook her whole being.

I know you might be confused, but everything will come about!


	9. Family Trees

****

Chapter 8

Family Trees

Ron opened the kitchen door, and Ginny along with Hermione and himself stepped out from the crowded room. Their expressions were that of an insane person that ran away from St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Malodies and Injuries.

Ron was gasping for air, as if fish out of water. The pupils of his gray eyes were greatly enlarged that it seemed he received a rather large amount of opium. Ginny looked at him concerned, but her own appearance was not in any better state. If it was anymore possible to have much paler skin tone, for that girl, it was now. She looked as if meeting death itself. It seemed to me that Hermione's bushy hair stood on its ends. Her hazel eyes were clouded, and she revealed neither her feelings not her emotions. Her face was motionless, as if she was a robot.

I must admit that my own look was not any different from my three stunned friends. I couldn't see myself, although I was dying to, but I can only imagine what I must have looked like. To tell you the truth, I couldn't even imagine of what the potion did to me, but by everyone's reaction I should be speechless. I was trying to comprehend every new detail that was told to me just a moment earlier.

"Ah, you had to use the potion." I heard Snape's voice above me. As my eyes were cast downwards, all I saw were black robes. I quickly realized that he was addressing me, so my eyes shifted from his captivating robes to meet a pair of jet black eyes.

"Didn't you hear me?" Without me noticing and before me stopping, the aggravation and hatred boiled within me. The thoughts that lurked in my mind turned into words and came tumbling down from my lips.

"If you are asking a question make sure that the person you are addressing does not confuse it with a statement. If it was a statement," I began once again in a much louder tone of voice before he could spill another word with his disgusting voice, "then I'm not obliged to respond. Furthermore, you can see perfectly well for yourself that we had to use the potion, otherwise your phrase would not sound as if a statement. Now if you excuse me, I do not wish to prolong the continuation of the meeting with my presence." I stepped out from the room and cleared the way for him. He observed me for some time. He was defiantly stunned, but he did not loose himself and the corner of his lips curled upwards in wonder. He entered the kitchen, and as soon as he disappeared from my view I slammed the door shut.

"What is it with you and Snape?" Ron finally came back to his scenes. I felt my face flush. I had no answer to his question. Why was I so rude to Snape? He was like everyone else. After all, he was a part of the Order; however, I didn't trust him. Whatever the reason must have been, his apprehensive attitude at our first meeting, his peculiar ways of observing me, or the fact that he was a Death Eater, I did not trust him or liked him.

"Anybody home?" Ron's long skinny fingers moved back and forward before my eyes. I quickly blinked keeping my eyes from any tears, caused by the dryness of them, and gazed at him.

"Sorry, what?"

"Nothing," he groaned, "honestly, you should pay more attention to the outside world then sitting trapped within your own head, _cousin_." He put a strong emphasis on the word "cousin" that I couldn't hold away the laughter. Our eyes were filling with hysterical tears. My stomach was beginning to hurt and, I bended down to quiet myself. After we calmed ourselves down, I looked about the hall.

"Where's Ginny and Hermione?"

"Oh they went to that room over there." He pointed to a heavy wooden door with a large snake drawn upon it.

"What are they doing in there? Or better, what's in there?" Ron began walking towards it, and I followed.

"To tell you the truth," he began, "I never been there. That's stupid of me out of all people. Harry and I know every bit of this old house. I guess Harry got to know an extra room before I did. Actually there are plenty of places in here that we never been to. Some of the rooms are closed by some spells, even Sirius doesn't know what's in there. Now, I'm very curious what's in this little chamber!"

"Why do you think that they are in there?"

"Well, Harry told me that he has sessions with Snape in there, so Herms and Ginny went to fetch him. They are probably telling him about your wicked transformation!

"I want to see what I look like!"

"You'll get the chance. Besides you remind me of Ginny. I like you better the old way." He reached for the handle that was shaped like a serpent's head.

"Your sister is quite charming!" I didn't know who to defend Ginny or myself. He truly didn't mean it to be a compliment, so he didn't think Ginny pretty, but then he said he liked me better the old way. I was just confusing myself.

"Ron turned the knob and pushed the door open. The two girls along with Harry sat on the stone floor. Ginny was loudly filling him in about the meeting. Harry's mouth was half-open. He wasn't blinking, and all he did was nod after each passing phrase.

"Shut your lips mate, or you'll start drooling." Ron patted Harry on the back.

"Nice for you to join us." Hermione was back to her normal self. She was annoyed about something. Honestly, she was either irritated or angry with everyone. "Are you done admiring Katie's audacious ways of talking back to professors?"

"I'm not audacious!" I protested. "I'm fair and take no backing to myself. 'An eye for an eye'. It's just the way he treats me that make me treat him the way I do. And what do you mean 'professors?'" I tried to say 'professors' in the most Hermione like voice that I could manage to format. She jumped to her feet and faced me. Her expression was furious, and I felt offended and wrongly accused.

"The way you talked to Dumbledore at lunch!" She shouted.

"What are you talking about?"

"Like you don't know, being know it all and talking smart!"

"Now, you are going way across the line! Just because I know what to say and act the way I do does not mean I disrespect him. I was polite and considerate! My words reflected no scornful attitude or rudeness! I simply answered the questions that were addressed to me!" My voice bounced off from the stone walls. Her eyes flashed with anger. Her hands were turned into fists and trembled, as were my own.

"You don't deserve to be a Weasley! They are kind and loving!"

"Hermione!" Harry was trying to stop her. All three of them stared at us with awe.

"Leave me along Harry!" She snapped at him.

"Hermione that would be enough! You don't know what you're saying! What got into you?" Harry's voice was steadily rising with each word that he spoke.

"You are nothing like them!" She continued shouting at me. "Ron was right about you from the beginning, but I have no idea why he came to like you! He was right that you are a Malfoy and worth not to be saved. You might deny it, but that's what you really are inside. You are a real Slytherin, and that's where you'll be placed. I don't know why the Order is trying to protect you, one filth less! The Death Eaters got rid of your filthy mother, and you'll be..." Before she could finish and before I could restrain myself, the snapping feeling within my body overshadowed my mind, and my hand placed a blow upon her rosy cheek.

"You might feel that I'm not worthy of respect, but you'll not speak ill of my family!" My voice was low and penetrating. I felt coldness spreading over me. Hermione's eyes were filling with silent tears, as Harry, Ron, and Ginny looked shocked at us.

Without another word Hermione flew out of the chamber. Ginny rushed after her. Ron took a look at me. His eyes were full of sympathy, but in the same time the message; "you shouldn't have" flashed vividly within them. He also left Harry and myself, following her.

I was avidly breathing. My heart was rushing out of my body, but something caught it within my throat and permitted no way out. My knees buckled under me, and I dropped to the floor. Slowly hot tears rolled down my face, falling to the limestone that decorated the floor. They created small wet circles that glittered every time the light from the candles gently glided over them.

"She should not have said it all!" I cried angrily as Harry sat about me. He conjured a glass of water and handed it to me.

"I know, Hermione will always remain Hermione. Something is obviously bothering her. Whatever it is, you are the cause of it. She's embarrassed to come out in the open, so she holds the emotions within herself when they are trying to brake free."

"She should just say what's on her mind! Why keep it to yourself? She'll feel much better sharing her feelings. We might help her. She might be taking everything in a wrong way, in a false nature." Harry's hand brushed off my hair from my face, and I slowly calmed down.

"Give her time. She'll turn around." I heard him say. It was so funny to hear him say that. I known him to be foolish just like a little kid. However, he seemed older and wiser to me at that very moment. I chuckled at his statement, and his eyes glowed with delight.

"I'm not even trying to be funny, and I still manage to cheer you up! What a gift!"

"Thanks for the pep-talk."

"No problem!" He raised to his feet and pulled me up as well. "Don't listen to her. Your red hair and those brown eyes make you look like a true Weasley."

"Do I have freckles like they do?"

"Ya a bit," he studied me carefully, "it's a pity they shortened your hair, but now you remind me of Ginny. No one will ever suspect that you are anyone else then a Weasley."

"I'm Mr. Weasley's long lost niece from his younger brother that left to Russia. No one even knows about him."

"Does he actually have a brother?"

"Yap. Dumbledore said that his name was Jacob Hubert Weasley. He had a row with Mr. Weasley's father, and he simply left. He just finished Hogwarts. No one heard of him from then on." Harry looked at me bewildered. "Ya sounds insane; I know. I can't imagine some one hating their father. I can't get the fact of my parent's death settled in my head; can't even picture myself leaving them out of my own free will."

"I just wish I knew my parents. We should go upstairs; the others will be worried."

"Right," I mumbled to myself. I rubbed my puffy red eyes and stepped out from the dark chamber. Harry carefully closed the door and came up to me.

The meeting was over. The kitchen stood motionless and soundless. The fire was still burning, but it was much lower and gave off less light.

"Lets go to..."

"Shh...!" I placed my index finger before my lips. "Do you here...this...this..."

"What?"

"...like a hissing noise?" Harry listened for a moment. His eyes wondered from one corner of the hall to the next under his round glasses.

" Now that you mention it, I hear something coming from that corner over there." He pointed to the furthest and darkest wall at the hall. I glanced at it, but all I saw was a dead end.

Harry walked towards it. His hands began inspecting the stones that lined it. Suddenly he stopped and began pressing on one of the stones.

"Give me a hand! Don't just stand there!"

I rushed towards him and pressed all my weight upon it. The stone fell under our weight and half of the wall flipped open revealing a dark staircase.

"You could have said 'please.'" I shortly told Harry entering the passage.

"Are you going to go in there?"

"Of course! Why not?"

"Because you don't know what's in there. Besides, you don't have a wand." I felt my robes for the wand.

"Shoot! Do you know where it is?"

"Dumbledore took it when you came last night. He was quite astonished by it. I don't know what he did with it to be honest."

"Dumbledore! But he's going to leave, if he didn't leave already!" I began running

towards the stairs that led to the first landing. "Wait for me! I'll be quick!"

I raised up to the first floor and looked about. I heard Mrs. Weasley talking to Tonks. Mr. Black was sitting in the living room looking into the fire. Mr. Lupin, Mr. Weasley, and the twins were discussing some invisibility spells. Finally I heard Dubledore's voice. He was standing by an old, black, worn out, and very beaten door. There was a small circular glass opening to look outside and the side of it was covered by countless locks and chains. I suppose it was a normal, muggle like entrance door to the manor.

"Professor Dumbledore!"

"Well Miss Weasley, what can I do for you?"

"Harry told me that you've taken my wand. I was just wondering if I could have it back." His eyes sparkled with glee and mischief.

"Ah, that wand is one of a kind."

"Aren't they all, professor?" I smiled.

"Yes, each wand is different; you are correct. However, there was only one wand in the world made of a dragon's fang. It is quite interesting that you were destined to have it. Do you know if you are parselmouth?"

"No of course not!" I laughed. "Well, I don't think that I am." I quickly added seeing Dumbledore's expression. "Am I?"

"Well only time can tell that. You might be and might not be, but you are able to wield this wand. Are you not?"

"Well, I did cast a spell and it worked fine."

"You wield the power of..."

"Dumbledore, I'm glad you're still here. It completely fell out of my head. I need to speak to you before you'll go!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed with her high pitched voice. She marched in our directions, both hands about her waist. She wasn't angry or happy, more like irritated. I wished to know what Dumbledore had to say, but the staircase was more attractive then he was. Dumbledore took out my wand from the pocket of his robes and handed it to me. Taking advantage of Mrs. Weasley's disturbance, I rushed back to the secret passage.

Harry was sitting by the opened door, rolling his wand on the floor.

"Took you long enough! I thought you left me here to die!" Harry yelled out as so as he spotted me.

"Sorry! Dumbledore asked me questions, and I couldn't just leave him. Thanks to Mrs. Weasley, I got away."

"Nice. So are you sure you want to go?"

"Come on Harry, don't you want to check it out? Besides, if you didn't want to go, you would have left by now. Now come on!"

"You have a weird sense of logic. I'm just worried about you. I haven't seen you use magic before. For all I know you might be bad. You don't know what kinds of things go around in London. I seen those things, seen death itself, and let me tell you it's not pretty."

"Harry, stop fussing about it. I don't need a lecture. Lets go if you're coming. I'm not going to push you and force you to go," I thought for a moment, "if you're a coward." With this I turned around and began descending down the stairs. "Lumos" I said and the tip of my wand began glowing with a bright green light.

I heard Harry saying Lumos as well. His wand began glowing with a simple yellow glow.

"Why is your wand glowing green?"

"I'll tell you later." We climbed down in silent for some time. The air was humid and immediately the robes clenched to my moist body, and my hair plated to my face. I heard Harry's breathing behind me. He was so close to me that I felt his breath upon my back.

"Harry come next to me, just don't breath down my back. You are giving me goose bumps." My voice was suppressed, but it slipped the hint of annoyance and aggravation. He quickly leveled off with me.

"For how long are we going to go down for?"

"It's only been fifteen minutes. We're getting closer; the hissing is getting louder."

"It's a snake. It's guarding something."

"How do you know?" I gazed at him in amazement.

"I'm parselmouth."

"Well, I suppose Dumbledore was wrong."

"About what?"

"That I can speak snake language. All I hear is unclear hissing noises, sometimes it sounds like words."

"Well same with me."

"The difference is you can understand the words, I can't."

We finally came to the bottom of the stairs facing a huge door. It was made off silver. A huge serpent was pressed into it with a golden contour and designs. Its eyes beamed at us, and it began to sizzle.

"What is he saying?" I asked Harry motionless and as quietly as I could manage compressing the panic within me.

"It says that the owner of the house or its kinsman must accompany us to this room. But we can't leave, as we trespassed along his territory."

"What does that mean?"

"It means we're dead meat!"

"Well, lets just run for it!"

"You two are not going anywhere!" The snake's head and body came off from the door and jumped on to us. We barely managed to jump from its way into two different directions.

"You are parselmouth!" Harry screamed breathlessly.

"No I'm no!" I shouted back dodging another blow from the snake.

"You can clearly speak it!"

"You couldn't find a better place to discuss this!" I yelled falling to the ground. Harry leaped to pick me up, as the snake rushed our way. Suddenly white lights filled the room, and we saw the silhouetted outline of Sirius Black. The serpent retrieved back to the door and it squealed itself open.

"You guys are lucky!" He exclaimed and ran up to us. We saw Professor Lupin coming down the rigid steps.

"How did you know we were here?" I asked them while catching my breath.

"You were overexcited about something while talking to Dumbledore, so Lupin and I decided to follow you."

"Good thing we did." Professor Lupin noticed. "What were you doing here anyways?"

"We just wanted to see what was in here."

"Curiosity can destroy the most powerful wizard, Harry. It would do the two of you some good if you keep away from such nonsense as placing your long noses in things that do not concern you. That goes for Ron and Hermione, too. Where are Sirius and Natalie?"

"We're inside, Lupin!"

While Professor Lupin lectured Harry and myself, Sirius dragged me away to the room that was guarded by the serpent. It was filled with many pallets that were full of names and lines connecting their spouse and their children. It was incredibly large, and no matter of its size every bit of the walls was covered by a different wizard family.

"I knew this room existed, but I never been in here." Sirius whispered. Harry and Lupin poked their heads, and their eyes circled the chamber. Harry ran into it and examined every name upon the walls. Professor Lupin walked towards his own family tree.

"What is this place?" Harry asked in bewilderment.

"I read about it back home. Its called _Eert Ylimaf. _Every pureblood family has this room somewhere within their house. All of the pureblooded families are here. Because of this room the house remains in the hands of the family for centuries. However, once a muggle or muggle born witch or wizard enters the family their spouse is colored bright red. At that moment the kinsman that betrayed the pureblood line can't possess the house after his or her parents death. Their new home will not have this room, and on every other tree the continuation of their line will not be shown."

Harry was slowly absorbing each ward that I've spoken. He finally reached the tree that read _Potters _on the very top. It was dated way back to the Dark Ages. He looked down to see James Potter, as the last pure Potter, connected to Lillian Evens. His mother's name was colored in ruby red.

"Well, I guess dad ended the pureblood of the Potters." I looked back at Professor Lupin. He was still by his tree staring at his father's name. His family was not that old and none of the people glowed red. I wondered why he wasn't married. He was fun and intelligent. He cared about his friends and was faire. However, he was all alone and unwanted.

My eyes rested on the name _Malverons._

"That's interesting.' I said aloud without noticing it.

"What?" Harry came up to me and observed the tree I was looking at. "What's so unusual about the _Malverons_?"

"Look at their last pureblood witch." Harry's eyes drifted downwards and came to a stop upon Jarubelle Claversha Malveron. A golden light connected her to Maxwell Mal, whose name was burning scarlet.

"Those are my parents," I said calmly, "but mum always told me that she was a muggle born." I couldn't understand the reason of her lying to me. Why didn't she wish for me to know?

Next to _Malverons's _side stretched the _Malfoys_. I was particularly interested in them. If I resembled them, then I must be on the tree. Of course if I was a Malfoy, and there was no chance of me being one.

Harry also glared at the Malfoy's tree. His expression was scornful and full of disgust. His fingers brushed off the names and finally rested on Lucius slowly moving to Draco.

"I never knew Lucius had brothers!" He exclaimed. His eyes were greatly enlarged. Due to his glasses' magnification he looked like an owl in the dark. Remus and Sirius exchanged delightful looks. They both chuckled obviously remembering something amusing.

"The good old days." Professor Lupin walked towards us and places his hands on Harry's shoulders. Sirius, on the other hand, became gloomy all of a sudden and walked up to the _Blacks._

"Wow! Does Lucius have a twin?"

"He had one, Harry. A nasty one, too. He was, however, the best out of the three. One could catch the human side in him, as it was virtually impossible to do with the other two. He dearly loved his family, but it's hard to express your affection with the Malfoys."

"Who was Revers married to? He has a child, but there's no mother." Professor Lupin glanced gloomily at Sirius. Harry and myself turned our heads to face him.

"He wasn't married," Sirius began bitterly, "he just had a go with my sister."

"Now Sirius, we all know it wasn't a game for him."

"Oh please Remus! He allowed his father to kill her and the child!"

"You don't know how everything happened. He might never known."

"What happened?" I tried to prevent an argument between them.

"Lucius's father thrown away the child and the mother off some cliff." Sirius said through gritted teeth.

"But there is no death date under her name."

"They never found the girl's body, so the trees had no idea if she died or not; therefore, they've placed a question mark for her death date." Remus simply answered the question. I walked to see the name of the mother that Revers Malfoy "seduced". It read Victoria Jennifer Black, born April 12, 1968 and died November 2, 1989. Under her was a name written in pink, Catherine Moonavern Black, born January 19, 1988-?.

"Wait a minute," I exclaimed confused, "why is her surname different here from the Malfoys's tree? She's a Malfoy back there!"

"They were not married, so each tree placed her under its own name." Lupin nervously ran his fingers through his hair. I didn't ask anymore questions about the girl or the parents. It was obvious that I made the two men uncomfortable, so I dropped the topic. Besides Harry distracted me by his own questions.

"If the Malfoys has this room, wouldn't he know that Katie is a fake?"

"Natalie," Remus quickly corrected him.

"Right Natalie. Or was she placed onto the tree by magic?"

"Well, lets see..." all four of us cam up to the Weasley's tree. Jacob Hubert Weasley was at the right side of Arthur Weasley. He was connected to Julia Callaway that glowed red.

"I suppose now I'm half-and-half."

"Like you were before." Harry chuckled.

"Seems that way. We better head back upstairs. The others are probably looking for us, and I don't want Molly giving me another lecture on my irresponsibility." Sirius broke out from his trance and walked out from the chamber. We followed him quietly. The door slowly closed behind us, as we climbed up the stars.

We finally reached the secret door and came out. The kitchen was once again filled with people. We heard Mrs. Weasley's shouts about our absents. Tonks was running back and forwards with plates. Ron was sitting by the fire, while Ginny hissed at him about not helping everyone else. I searched for Hermione, but she wasn't there. I didn't feel hungry, so I sneaked into my room and immediately fell asleep.


	10. Reconciliation and a Plan

****

Chapter 9

Reconciliation and a Plan

A week passed from my arrival. The last August day was brighter then ever and extremely hot. The sun shined into my room that was shared with Ginny. Ginny turned out to be a very interesting and intelligent girl. She was always cheery and didn't hesitate to land a hand with anything that she could help with. We often talked about Hogwarts and Quidditch, but our conversations did not drift to any other direction. She was much more careful of what she says after the argument that I had with Hermione. Sometimes she'll think for a very long time, as if making sure that the phrase she's about to say is precisely right. She became more cautious around me, always on he guard.

Hermione avoided me at all coasts. She rarely left her room. The only times she was in the company of the others was during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. At times we would meet each other at the halls, but she quickly walked passed me, avoiding eye contact, and turning a bit pink. Ron told me that she would sit in her room and read for hours. I love reading myself, but my eyes fly out of their orbit, if I would read the small font of the heavyset books unstop.

Finding no better company, I've spent all of my time with Harry and Ron. They taught me how to apparate, and it was thrilling. It took me about four days to fully learn the apparation process. I would practice, practice, and practice. Of course we had to do it so no grownup would see us doing it. I wasn't allowed to apparate before passing the test, but because I was new in England the Ministry had no way of keeping track of me. However, if Mrs. Weasley had caught us, we wouldn't hear the end of it. Ron was amazed at my fast progress, but Harry declared it was nothing special. He told me that Hermione learned it as fast as I did, and it was only proven difficult for Ron and himself. It took them nearly a month.

"Even Nevil Longbottom got it before us. He managed to apparate with full control after two weeks!" Harry told me.

I usually closed myself within the four walls of my chamber when Harry, Ginny, and Ron practiced Quidditch. Ron's brothers were very keen to help. The only draw back was they had to play inside.

Playing inside was proven to be as enjoyable as playing outside. Of course there was no fresh air, but the space was much the same. The Black Manor had a huge room resembling the Quidditch stadium. Actually it was a Quidditch stadium only under the roof. The room was on the first floor above the _Eert Ylimaf _room.

The house was amazing! I couldn't hold in my excitement and eager to examine every bit of it. Harry told me that it was a mess the first time he got there that I got to the nice and clean circumstances. I was quite pleased and relieved that there was no more cleaning, even though some of the rooms were still untouched.

When I took little walks about the mansion, I couldn't help myself of being disgusted by the stuffed faces of house elves that were hanging on the walls and were staring at me with their big yellow eyes. Sirius got rid of his own old elf, Kreacher. Professor Lupin filled me in about the elf's poor sanity.

"He was driving my poor friend mad, so we decided to give the elf the honor and cut off his head." Lupin explained. I was not thrilled about the poor elf's bitter end. I pitied the poor creatures and though elves deserved freedom or at least to die of old age. Lupin told me that it was an old ritual in the Black's family. He said the elves though of it as an honor that meant they were very good servants and are granted the quick death compared to a bitter old age. I was still convinced it was wrong to do such a thing, but if the elves felt it was for the better; it was their choice. Besides, they did it out of their own free will.

Sirius's mother also gave me the chill every time I heard her terrifying screams. She was out of her mind; and it was just a painting. I wondered what was Sirius's real mother like. Her piercing voice woke me up in the middle of the night. She was shouting over the furious Mrs. Weasley. With this Ginny moaned in agitation; Harry would slip out of his room and eavesdrop. Ron, on the other hand, slept as if dead.

Both of Ron's eldest brothers left on my second day stay. I didn't have time to talk to them about Egypt and dragons. It really got me down, but the prospect of reading about everything at Hogwarts lifted my morose spirit.

My stubbornness prevented me from listening to anyone that tried to help. My mood swings ended up with some rude comments to Professor Snape. I was rebellious with everyone about everything. Professor Lupin and Sirius were always present as Mrs. Weasley lectured me, but their eyes were laughing, and they never came between me and whatever I set my mind to do. Actually they were fond of my character. They encouraged me, as Mrs. Weasley barked at them like a mad dog.

This was one of those wonderful days that I've spent in Black Manor. I wasn't sure where it was located, and didn't bother to find out. Today was more special then all the other days that I've spend here. First of all it was the last day before the start of term. I couldn't wait to examine the grounds of Hogwarts. Ron told me it would be the most incredible place that I ever been to and the most tidies as well. Second of all today was my birthday.

As the early rays spilled upon my face, I pondered about the portrait of my father that was hanging at the bottom of the stairs at my old house. I could not wait to heat its cheerful voice greeting me and wishing me Happy Birthday. I loaned for it and for his warming smile. Now more then ever I wished to talk him. I wondered if Dumbledore would take me there, so I can gather the things that I'll need.

"Who am I kidding?" I thought. "Me going home and checking things out? Besides I'll get there very soon to gather everything. Dumbledore would not sell the house with all my things. Would he?" What if he'd sell it with everything that I treasured? I was beginning to panic. My soft red hair was spread upon the pillow, and my chocolate eyes wondered upon the ceiling. I heard Ginny's calm breathing and compared it to my own fast and sharp breaths.

"That's rubbish!" I began reassuring myself. "Dumbledore wouldn't do that to you. He has a heart after all. Besides, who would want to buy all of those things?" I began twirling a bunch of my hair and was humming an old tune that mother sang to me when I was little.

"But why should I wait? I can go home myself."

"Are you crazy?" My subconscious mind gave out a voice.

"No I'm not! Why should I wait?"

"Because those Death Eaters can be waiting for you! You are so stupid!" The voice screamed at me.

"Am I really stupid?" I thought again. "No I'm not! I'm going to go! Tonight! I mean no one will ever know. I'll apparate into my room, get everything that I need, and then apparate back."

"What if you wont be able to apparate back? What if there are spells that are not allowing you to apparate?"

"Then I'll cast a return spell." I said firmly to that annoying voice within my head. "It's settled then, I'm going to go tonight after everyone would settle down." I finally declared to myself. I kicked off the covers and jumped to my feet. The cold floor brought a cold current over me. I looked for my shoes, but they were nowhere to be found. I dropped to my knees and looked under the bed.

"Who kicked them in?" I asked myself aloud and very irritated.

  
"Well, well, well...what a picture." A slimy voice spoke behind me. For a moment I thought it was Snape and was immediately embarrassed. I sharply turned around to see a young man with dark brown hair and gray eyes staring at me. It was a portrait of Dendevol Black, Sirius's great-great-grandfather at his teen years. He was usually missing from his frame and was wondering in other pictures. A nasty little fellow, but if you would catch him at the right moment and present the right topic, he was a rather interesting guy to talk to. He knew allot of things. Sirius drained all of the information about Voldemort that the portrait new. Mrs. Black often spoke of Voldemort, so he knew quite allot.

"Oh, hello." I said and quickly pulled on the shoes. "Nice day is it not?"

"Yes, charming," the portrait answered.

I didn't feel like continuing the conversation, so I turned to other matters. My bed needed new sheets, so I dragged the old once off. Not having the new set, all that I could do was flip the covers on and place my bare pillow upon it.

"Do you mind?" I asked irritated of his presents. He simply stared at me, grinning. Even though he was just an old portrait, his glance was penetrating.

"Not at all! Help yourself!"

"It would be advisable for you to leave. I would also ask not to poke your face into this room ever again, if you don't want me blasting you into millions of little scraps. What are you doing in your frame anyhow? You're usually wondering about and disturbing the others."

"Not at six in the morning I don't! I always keep an eye on you until eight. By then someone is bound to wake up."

"You look after me then?"

"Just so you don't run off. Well, I see you're quite awake, so I'll wait for you in the kitchen. Bye!" With that he disappeared. I was puzzled and for a while stared at the empty frame. They are watching me? Why would they? I gave no reason for them to suspect that I'll run away. When I thought about the past week everyone were sweet and kind to me.

"It's not because they don't trust you." I told myself greatly amused. "They are just making sure you're safe." With that all cleared out, I came up to the closet and pushed the door open. Ginny had kindly agreed to share her wardrobe with me. We were about the same size, so her robes and muggle clothes fitted me well. They were kind of worn-out, but it didn't bother me. It's not like I had spectacular things to wear at home.

I took out a summer yellow dress and slipped into it. The Weasleys were fond of muggle clothes, and I was glad they were. Muggle wear was much more suitable for everyday wear then those long robes that made one clumsy and were unsuited for more effective movements.

I quietly opened the door and similarly closed it behind me. I headed for the bathroom, which was not that far away. It was across Ron and Harry's room, which was silent as the grave.

The light from the small window illuminated the clean bathroom. The circular mirror reflected the lights that crept out to the hall. I turned on the water and waited for it to heat up. My enchanted toothbrush was magically filled in with toothpaste and zoomed into my mouth brushing vigorously. In the meantime I took care of my hair. Their wasn't that much that I could have done with it. It was too short for any hair ties. I couldn't just leave it hanging because it fell to my eyes. All I could do was tie them with hairclips wishing to have my long blond locks back.

Getting myself presentable I preceded into the kitchen. To my surprise Hermione was eating cereal fully absorbed in her book, _Protect Yourself From the Most Dangerous Monsters._

"You shouldn't read while eating. The kitchen is unpredictable, you can ruin it." I simply told her and walked towards one of the cabinets to get myself a bowl. She blinked at me but didn't say anything. I took out a spoon and joined her, sitting opposite of her. The jug of milk was by her side, and before I could ask for it she handed it to me.

"Thanks."

"No problem," she said and closed the book. I filled in my bowl and dropped a handful of Magical Puffs into it. The round cereal balls began changing color as soon as they toughed the cool milk. We set in silence for sometime, but Hermione cleared her throat, and I glanced at her.

"I'm going strait to the point," she began, "and I wanted to apologize for days. At first my stupid pride didn't allow me to do so, and later on I was feeling ashamed about all the nasty things that I've said." She dropped her eyes downward to her hands while her fingers smoothed out a napkin.

"But I had to come up to you sooner or later. I know I've been stupid and only wanted you to feel miserable because I was."

"It's about me entering the trio, isn't it? You feel pushed out?" She barely nodded. Her cheeks were burning red.

"It's about Ron as well." I didn't ask this time. I just stated the fact. She gazed at me astonished and nodded once again.

"Then you are stupid, but I can clearly understand why and do not blame you. Don't sweat about it; I forgot it a long time ago, but just be worn that I take no garbage about my family."

"I know that. I wouldn't either. I would have punched someone as well, if they were talking the way I did. It's just I was the one those two consulted with for the past six years. They never left me out of a conversation. The night you came in everything seemed to change. They simply forgot about -"

"First of all it was you that didn't take part in the conversations, and second of all they didn't forget about you; it was you that simply locked yourself in your room. If you want to know, both of them missed you very much. They tolled me allot about you."

"They did?" She looked surprised.

"Don't sound like it was some deep lost secret that no one knew about. Of course they would be interested in me and talk to me. I'm new in this old house. You three were stuck here for two years and all you heard about was Voldemort this and that. I was only some distraction and fresh news. I have my own mind, my own ideas, and new advise. Just because they are interested in me, doesn't mean they forgot about you. Honestly Hermione, they said you were smart. I thought you'd get it for yourself." She looked at me quite embarrassed. I was feeling sorry for her, but I had to get her out in the open.

"Another thing, don't worry about Ron." She smiled sadly.

"I'm not worried. I know he likes you."

"He might like me, but I don't share the same feelings with him. If he asks me out or something, I'll simply open his eyes. A person can't like someone forever if the other one doesn't share the same feelings. I don't think he likes me. I think he fancies you."

"What!"

"Well, actually I don't know whom he likes. To tell you the truth, I don't think he know it for himself." I placed the last spoonful of cereal into my mouth.

"Guess what!"

"What?"

"My mum told me about this potion that tells you who your soul mate is."

"And you believe it?"

"Well, she said she met dad like that. They were married for eighteen years."

"Ok so what are you getting on?"

"It's all tied to the full moon, and I checked the astrology charts. We are in luck because the moon is in the right position this September. All we need is gather all the ingredients by today."

"How many?"

"Well we would need about thirty different things."

"Thirty!"

"Ya, but I have most of them. The things that we still need I can get at my mum's basement."

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't tell anyone but I'm planning to sneak of tonight."

"What!"

"I need to get my things from home, so I can simply attend school."

"No way! You can't! It's too dangerous."

"Don't give me a lecture, Hermione. I know what I'm doing, and you won't be able to change my mind. I'm going, and that's that." She looked at me worried.

"Well, anyways how is this potion works?" I carefully told her everything that mum told me. She listened to every single word that I've said without interrupting me once. After I finished, she sat quietly trying to work out every new detail that she gathered.

"We can try to make it, but we would have to go to the library after the Start of Term Feast."

"No need, mom has many books on potions. I bet there is one that contains this one as well. I'll get all the things."

"No you won't because I'm coming with you."

"Are you series?"

"Yes I am. It's better to have back up."

"Back up for what?" We heard Ron's voice at the entrance to the kitchen. He looked at us perplexed and then his face brightened. "Blindly! You two are on speaking terms again!"

"That must be something! Are we having a good day?" Harry asked.

"So what were you talking about backup?" Ron asked once again. Hermione and I exchanged glances. I decided it would be better to tell Harry and Ron. After all, they might decide to go with us. They must be tiered of this old house by now. I told them that I need to go back home and get my trunk and some stuff. I, of course, left out the part about the potion.

"We want to go!" Harry exclaimed. "You weren't trying to go without us?"

"If we were, we wouldn't have told you." Hermione said, as if they were stupid.

"What time?" Ron asked excitedly.

"We were thinking when everyone goes to bed." I answered. Suddenly Mrs. Weasley entered the room, and we fell silent. She smiled at us happily.

"Up already? That's nice! The earlier the better!" She smiled at us once more. We exchanged looks and fell to our cups of tea.

N/A:A new chapter! I hope you like it! Once again thanks to all my reviewers. I can't wait to read your thoughts after for this chapter. I'll try to update very soon, but I'm not sure. I'm still working out the whole thing. For all of those that think Katie is Revers and Victoria's daughter, you are (oh well, I'm not going to tell. You'll have to wait and find out!) It's more then meets the eye.

Cheers to all!


	11. A Simple Confession

****

Chapter 10

A Simple Confession

We were quite happy when Mrs. Weasley sent us to pack our trunks. I'm guessing she simply forgot that I had nothing to pack and nowhere to pack to, nevertheless I headed upstairs along with everyone else.

"So we're going tonight?" Ron whispered, as his gray eyes drifted to his mother from time to time, while she hummed under her breath and arranged the plain white bowls into the cabinet. Harry stepped on Ron's foot to indicate that this is not the right place to discuss our evening plans. Ron gave a nasty look while moaning and massaging his big toe.

"Hello!" We suddenly heard. All four heads sharply turned upwards.

"Hello Professor Lupin," all of us said in unison.

"Up so early?"

"Couldn't sleep, you know, school starts tomorrow. We're looking forwards to it," Harry answered happily. Lupin looked at him and grinned. His eyes studied us carefully.

"What are you up to?"

"Oh nothing professor. We have many things to take care of," shouted Ron, as he and Harry ran upstairs like two elephants. Hermione and I exchanged a nervous look and then glanced back at Lupin.

"I hope that you two have more sense then they do." He made a soft movement with his head to the direction in which Harry and Ron disappeared to. We nodded. He continued looking at us and then smiled.

"Well, I doubt that Natalie has more sense. She might be even worse then Fred and George, but I expect Hermione will keep everyone inline."

Hermione gave a nervous giggle. She wasn't that good on keeping secrets.

"I will," she said. My eyes fell to her hand that was hidden behind her back. Her fingers were crossed, as she gave her faithful promise.

"Nice one," I thought.

Professor Lupin nodded and proceeded into the kitchen. He seemed wearier then before. His eyes were not shinning, as they usually did each morning. He had black circles under them, as if he was fighting with Hagrid. The wrinkles upon his face that were barely noticeable became more pronounced. His cheeks fell in, and the outline of his face became rougher. It was sharply cut, and most unfriendly. His skin was so pale that I could see the blood running under it. His hair was greasier and reminded me of Snape's dirty locks. I was growing worried, but Hermione assured me that there was nothing to worry about. She told me that it was natural for him to be this way. I was a bit relieved, but now curios of why it was natural for him to be the way he was.

We climbed up the stairs to Hermione's room, where we found Tonks that was packing things into her bright green bag. She moved from one corner of the room to the next. Today her hair was long, smooth, and jet-black. Her nose took a form of a hook. This ensemble took us by surprise, but our shock melted off into hysterical laughter.

"What are you supposed to be?" Hermione managed to squeal fighting with amusement.

"Oh...well...I..." she slowly began turning bright pink, "I'm...I'm...supposed to be S...Snape's sister." She finally managed to squeeze out of her.

"You're what?" I shouted, my eyes watery.

"Stop laughing you two! Besides, what's so funny about Snape?"

"Tonks, he's our teacher that we greatly dislike, and it is funny seeing a female version of him." Hermione explained.

"I must admit, you look like twins! Do you have the same personality as well?" I howled. Tonks, however, looked deeply hurt. She stormed passed us and out of the room, slamming the door shut. Hermione wiped of a tear of joy and looked at me bemused.

"You know," I began, "I think she has it for Snape."

"Ya, I think so too. We shouldn't have laughed, but I couldn't hold myself. We must offended her feelings pretty bad. She was crying, as she ran out of the room. Oh I feel awful."

"I feel sorry for her."

"Me, too. Can you imagine living with such a person as Snape? He's a walking nightmare! He's there when you're wide-awake. I wonder what she found in him." She walked to her trunk and flipped the cover open. She began placing her new robes into it. I came over to the window and glanced outside.

The sun was burning brighter then ever. It did not seem like it was going to cool of anytime soon. There was no breeze that picked up the fallen leaves, nor was their any hint of it.

Many memories began filling my mind. I would remember my great-grandmother that loved me dearly. She was one of the best storytellers. I loved coming over to her house and listen about her childhood. We would often play cards, and it was most enjoyable. However, the course of my life took me away from her, and I had no opportunity to see her. I haven't seen her for the past eight years and never will because she passed away. My memories I treasure for all eternity and will take them with me to my death.

"I'm tiered of the heat!" Hermione said suddenly. I turned around to see a full trunk that was ready for departure.

"For how long were you packing?"

"For about five minutes. I used an Assembly Charm. It works very nicely on a very large amount of things that need to be organized. Why do you ask?"

"Oh no reason. I thought that I lost track of time. So many things passed through my mind in just five minutes. Sometimes that happens to me, like I'm in a parallel world. Time is extremely slow where I am, but everyone around me has it normal."

"Nope, you're ok. So what are our plans about tonight?" Before I could begin a very handsome brown owl scratched on the glass of the window. I quickly reached to open it.

The owl flew in and landed on top of Hermione's shoulder. It was carrying a yellowish envelope with a chocolate color stamp. The envelope read:

Hermione Granger

Second Floor, Second Room

Date: August 31st

in green ink.

"What is it?" I asked her curiously.

"I'm not sure. It's a letter from Hogwarts." She untied it from the claw of the owl, and it flew away. I came closer to her to read it as well. She didn't object, even read it out loud.

****

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of the Merlin, First class, Grand Sorc, Chf. Wizarlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

__

Dear Miss Granger,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been entitled as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry's new Head Girl.

Term begins on September 1st. We will be waiting for you at the teacher's lounge right after the Start of Term Feast, where you'll be receiving your responsibilities.

Yours Sincerely,

MinervaMcGonagall

Minerva McGonagall,

_Deputy Headmistress_

"Wow! Congratulations!" I patted her on the back, as her eyes scanned over the letter one more time. Without a warning, she gave out a loud squeal. I jumped from the unexpectedness. The door to her room burst open and Ron, Harry, and Ginny ran into the it.

"What's all the commotion about?" Ron asked, his wand tautly clenched within his hand.

"I'm Head Girl!" Hermione shouted, her eyes shined with glee. She hopped from one foot to the next hugging the letter.

Ron rolled his eyes and lowered his wand, and so did the other two. By this time Professor Lupin, Mrs. Weasley, and Sirius pocked their heads in.

"What's up?" Sirius asked concerned.

"Hermione became Head Girl." Ron said unenthusiastically. Mrs. Weasley on the other hand became very jolly. She smiled widely and clapped her hands.

"Excellent job Hermione! I'm so proud of you! We'll have a party tonight in your honor!" She said excitedly. She tautly hugged Hermione and left the room. Lupin and Sirius gave their own congratulations and followed Mrs. Weasley.

"Great Job!" Ron spat out at her as the door closed. Her smile fell off from her lips, and she looked hurt.

"Aren't you happy for me?"

"Of course I am! But you know what the party means?" She shook her head, and Ron growled. "Seriously Hermione, for someone this smart, you are quite stupid. It means there would be more people around here then usual. Have you forgotten about our little adventure tonight?" Hermione gasped and looked at me with an "I'm so sorry" expression.

"Now what are we going to do?" Asked Harry a little disappointed.

"What are you up to?" We heard Ginny's voice. I completely forgot about her. She was so quiet that none of us noticed her.

"Nothing you should be concerned with!" Ron shouted.

"Don't speak with me in that tone! Harry, where are you going tonight?"

"Ahh..."

"We're going to my house." I simply told her. I didn't want to lie to her. She had a right to know like all the other kids.

"I want to come too!" She screamed excitedly.

"You're not going!" Ron said firmly and threw a nasty look at me.

"Why can't I?"

"Because it's dangerous!" Harry responded before Ron could open his mouth. Obviously, Harry was her last hope, because she groaned with distress and stormed out of the room.

"Why did you tell her?" Ron shouted at me.

"Well, she has the right to know."

"Oh my god! _'She has a right to know.' _Pff."

"Why are you angry?" Hermione snapped.

"Because you had to make a big deal out of it."

"Well sorry on being happy!"

"Come on, Hermione! I'm not telling you to be miserable, but you could have kept it from mum!"

"Well, maybe I wanted her to congratulate me!"

"You got that haven't you? You got it even though we had plans! Harry and I were looking forward to it. Now this badge comes along," he threw a round badge with a read H on it towards Hermione, "and everything that we wanted to do fell into the dark abyss!" Before Hermione could retaliate, I shouted;

"SHUT UP!" The three pair of eyes rested on me. "I'm tiered of this. You two stop arguing about every single thing; you're driving me insane! Ron, you're unbelievable! You treat Ginny, as if she's a house-elf, give her some respect! Now, no one ruined anyone's plans. We are still going. We'll just have to wait a bit longer to the night."

"What do you mean?"

"What she means is we're going when everyone settles down." Harry answered Hermione's question. I was quite glad that someone was listening and comprehending everything I said.

"You know Ron," Harry began once again, "you should give people some room. You're diving for the last piece of air when there's plenty just a little over." Ron's ears began burning red. He scratched his head and sat by the foot of Hermione's bed. I walked up to the bed and comfortably settled on top of it. Harry dragged a chair towards us and sat upon it, and Hermione pushed me a bit over and sat besides me.

"So how are we going to get to your house?" Harry asked.

"All of us can apparate, so I'll show you where the house is, and we'll apparate into the basement."

"Is it far away from here?" Ron asked rather worried.

"I don't know where _here _is. Where am I anyways?" All three of them exchanged edgy glances.

"We can't tell," Hermione responded, "Dumbledore thinks that Voldemort is looking for a way to get in here, so new people shouldn't know where they are."

"I think he would have blocked this place out of our minds, but decided against it. Removing things from someone's mind is dangerous." Ron swallowed and scratched his head once more.

"Well anyways, we'll apparate to the basement, and I'll get some potion things for Snape's class. After we'll head to my mum's room, so I could get some books and some of her belongings. I'll need to find the key to my Gringotts' account. Someone please shrink my dad's portrait that hangs by the stairs, so I can pack him with me."

"I'll do it." I heard Harry say.

"Thanks! Well, afterwards we'll go to my room, pack everything, and apparate back. Although I have no clue where _back_ is." I said, hopeful to hear where I was, hopeful that they'd slip and tell me, but no such luck.

"I'll apparate you back. I'm pretty good at it, so I can get you and myself back safely." Hermione smiled at me and once more began scanning over the letter.

"Well, with that all settled let's talk about something else." I was keen to change the subject.

"O.K. What was your career choice?" Hermione asked putting away the letter and eagerly looking at me.

"Oh that. I'm going to be a Healer."

"A Healer! Wow! There's barely anyone that passed for a Healer at Hogwarts!"

"To tell you the truth, Ron, there were only five people that passes their O.W.L.s for a Healer at Durmstrang. Actually not many even tried."

"Is your school so poor?"

"Are you crazy? That's one of the best schools in the world. The school is highly advanced and because of it many fail. It eliminates second hand wizards and witches. Only the best break into the real world ready for it. The Ministry does it on purpose. They must have the best with them, and if you're not that good, though luck."

"That's totally unfair!" Hermione shouted by me. She scared me out of my skin.

"Don't scare me like that!" I straiten myself and smoothed out my dress. "What's not fair?"

"Not everyone is gifted, but no one should deny them a chance. Take Neville for example. He's not the best. He needs more time to take care of things, but he manages them. He can become a great Auror, just like Harry or Ron or anyone."

"No one is denying them a chance. You don't want someone healing you if they don't know what they're doing." Hermione shook with anger. Ron looked at her kind of concerned.

"Hermione, calm down. It's not you that's effected by it all." I bet he regretted on saying this.

"Oh ya, it's not me so don't be concerned. It's just like you, Ron. You react to this, as if those people were house-elves. You don't care about anything else but yourself! Think of S.P.E.W! I can forgive you about not carrying about those poor elves, but not about people! You're despicable!" She jumped off the bed and left the room.

"Mental that one!"

"S.P.E.W.?"

"We'll tell you later." Harry said. "What classes do you have?"

"Oh, Herbology, Transfiguration, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and...I can't remember, but there's one more class."

"Potions," Ron spat disgustedly. "I remember reading the required classes in fifth year before Career Advice."

"Yap potions. I'm not that good at it, though. Horrible really, but I managed to get an E. Heaven knows how! I thought I'd fail."

"Well, we can assure you that Snape is no better." Harry informed me. Both of their faces became gloomy and they enclosed themselves within their own thoughts.

We sat in silence for a while, but I couldn't handle it.

"What were your career choices?"

"Both of us went for an Auror. It's been exiting! We have the same classes as you with an exception of Herbology."

"I don't know what we would have done if Professor McGonagall did not speak with Snape. Dumbledore spoke with him too. We got an E and Snape specifically didn't wish us in the class. He allowed Malfoy in even though he got an A; however, Dumbledore and McGonagall got us in." Harry said as if reliving the scene.

"What about Hermione?"

"She went to The Ministry for Control of Magical Creatures. We still have Charms, Transfiguration, Defense, and Potions together. She also has Care of Magical Creatures, Animalistics, and McGonagall is teaching her to be an Animagus." Ron told me.

"She's quite frustrated. It seems that's the only thing she can't get. She practiced for a year, and the only thing she managed to do was turn herself into something hairy. She spend a week in a hospital wing." Harry explained, but our conversation was cut short by Mrs. Weasley calling us for lunch, so we departed.

Evening was growing nearer, and the house was getting fuller. I didn't know some of the people, but Harry was my guide. He introduced them to me and me to them. They all smiled at me and shook my hand.

Mad-Eye-Moody studied me for a while. He said that I look just like my father. I guess he meant Jacob Weasley; I wasn't sure whom he was addressing to.

With each passing minute more butterflies occupied my belly. I was getting quiet edgy, and my body was shaky.

But it wasn't that long till everyone began departing, so I started looking for Harry, Hermione, and Ron. I found Ron first. He was sitting in the living room all alone and forgotten. He was gazing into the dancing flames; his eyes glazed and distant. His fingers played with a red ribbon from one of Hermione's presents.

I marched up to him and sat at the stool by his side. He jerked away from the fire as if startled by me and smiled.

"Glad you found me first." He said. I looked at him a bit perplexed. "You see I thought of you as a Malfoy, self-absorbed, hypocritical, rich, and spoiled, just because you resembled them. You're kind, witty, and smart. You're someone completely opposite from the Malfoys."

"Sometimes I look at you and see Ginny, a little sister of mine. Sometimes I see Hermione, bossy, demanding, and scary. I see Harry in you when you're brave and untouchable. When you're carrying and loving, I see mum. However, I never saw you selfish, arrogant, or snobby. You're this wonderful person having all the good qualities placed in you. It's like you're not real. You drive me mad at times. I guess what I'm trying to say is that..." He hesitated for a moment. His face was scarlet. He bend over me and placed his warm lips to mine. He did not touch me like Draco did in Diagon Alley. Actually his hands were on the handles of his chair. All I felt was the warmth from his lips. However, even though it felt wonderful I retreated my lips from his immediately.

I jumped off the stool, my mind raising. Wasn't it only this morning I was telling Hermione that I'd tell Ron strait forward how I felt about him? But now, as I stood before him, the words were left within me even though I forced them out. I didn't expect him to kiss me. I thought he'd tell me that he liked me, or something of that sort.

"Look I'm sorry. I shouldn't have..." He began rising off his chair burning even redder.

"Listen Ron, I care about you; allot! But I care for you just the same as for Hermione, Harry, or Ginny. I care for you like a brother. You're wonderful, but...but..." I was searching for the right word.

"I get it. Don't worry," and he rushed out of the living room and up the stairs. I heard the door slam shut, and at that moment Harry and Hermione stepped in.

"What's up with Ron?" She asked.

"I don't think he's feeling well. I'm not sure he's going to come with us."

"But he wanted to go. He even made a big scene out of it all!"

"I'll go check on him." Harry said and in no time stood before us once again.

"He said he has a terrible headache and won't be able to apparate. He does look a bit pale."

"Ah fine. Well, all fell to sleep. Mrs. Weasley is in bed, Tonks and all the other Ministry people left, Professor Lupin is on some secret business, and Sirius is at his mother's room. We are free to go."

"Lets go then." With a loud crack, we left to my house.

N/A:

Sorry it took so long to update. I left to New York and had no chance to write. I'm half finished with CH 11 so hopefully you'll read it before the week ends. I'm having some trouble placing everything together. I have some parts of the middle figured out, but I'm not sure how to tie them in with the beginning. Well anyways I got to think about that.

Hunni07: Yap I keep everything in my head. Sometimes the ideas don't enter into my story and are simply forgotten. However, the most part you'll get to know about later on.

Hippie1212: Well, if I answer your question the whole story will be lost. I can only tell that Snape will be in loads of trouble and Katie will be very surprised about her ancestry. Got to read to find out.


	12. Lupin's Secret

****

Chapter 11

Lupin's Secret

We landed in the dark basement surprisingly quietly. Harry did break a shelf. Apparently he lost his balance from the unexpectedness of the dark room.

"Why did everyone leave the party so early?" I whispered to Hermione.

"I don't know. They had something planned tonight with the Order. I'm not sure, though." We heard Harry's aggravated voice while he picked the right words to express his misfortune. I suppose he didn't wish to swear before us. I wondered if he ever.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked.

"My scar is burning, and I landed in something gooey and wet."

"That's my mum's potions. Lumos." My wand began glowing bright green. Harry and Hermione lightened their own wands.

I found Harry sitting by the broken shelf in a puddle of Fever Declining Potions. Mum gave it to me when I felt extremely out of normal. She used muggle medicine for a common cold. He rubbed his forehead; his eyes squinted.

I reached down to pull him up. As soon as our hands touched one another, I saw a circle of Death Eaters with their faces covered by the dark hoods. One of them lay on the ground shivering and screaming in agony. I heard his voice and it seamed so familiar, but I couldn't distinguish it with all the voices I heard through my entire life. I felt joy when I looked at him. I was laughing, as my wand was pointing at the small figure upon the ground.

Instead of me pulling Harry up, he managed to drag me down. My eyes were blurry. I gained a horrible headache. It felt, as if someone was hammering a nail into my head.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine! I guess I slipped." I answered. The room was spinning before my eyes.

"He's angry!" Harry exclaimed.

"You didn't!" Hermione shrieked and clasped one of her hands over her mouth.

"He's punishing someone. He's pleased about it too. I'm not sure who's punished."

"You're not working hard enough, Harry!"

"Don't give me this Hermione! I want to block those visions as much as you do." He said angrily. I pulled myself to my feet and performed a cleaning charm. My hands were trembling.

"What have I seen just now?" I thought. "Who were all those people? Am I going crazy?"

"You can't be going crazy." A quiet voice told me within my head.

"That's right! I can't be going crazy! Harry saw all of these too."

"Are you sure you're O.K.?" Hermione asked once again. I quickly nodded only making myself dizzier.

"Well ok, but you look white as a sheet."

"Don't worry about it. Lets just get everything we need and go upstairs."

Hermione crawled up to me. Her voice was barely audible.

"What will we need?"

"I need to find a box. It has all the ingredients that we have in this house. If there's something missing, then we don't have it at all."

"Are you talking about this?" Harry pointed at a large wooden box with a big **M **on top of it.

"Yes!" I rushed towards it and lifted the dusty lid. There were many containers in it, much more then the box allowed. I remember mum putting an expending charm on it. Harry and Hermione joined me and began observing the contents of my wonderful container. Hermione's eyes were shinning with thrill.

"You have more things in here, then Snape himself in his dungeons!" She exclaimed. Her hands began going through every single herb.

"Actually this room greatly resembles Snape's dungeon." Harry informed me, while his eyes scanned the chamber.

"Potions fascinated my mum." I quickly said placing the lid back on. "We should head upstairs." I opened the basement door that gave a loud squeal, and we entered the corridor in between the kitchen and the living room. I looked around to make sure that we were alone and walked out. Hermione followed me, while Harry performed a shrinking charm on the ingredient box. But he didn't take long and in no time stood along with us.

"Now where are we going?" He asked.

"To the second floor. Harry you'll shrink my dad's portrait, while Hermione and I head for my mum's room."

"Got it!" They both said.

The house was dead. There was no one to be found in it but us. It wasn't completely dark yet. It was not even nine o'clock. Everyone began coming in at about five. I thought we'll have to wait at least until midnight, but everyone was gone by eight fifteen.

We reached mum's room that still smelled of rose extract. It was always tidy and remained that way. She liked everything clean, screamed at me if I left something out of place. She had a large bookcase that stood by the window. I rushed towards it, as soon as I entered the room. Meanwhile Harry and Hermione examined the chamber.

"You're mum was a perfectionist." Harry concluded.

"How so?" I asked while pushing out of the way useless pieces of literature and pulling out the once I needed.

"You should see Hermione's room. It sparkles like the night sky. Also just like this one. I know for a fact that no one in their right mind would keep everything this clean." Hermione gave him a nasty look and began glancing over the books that I've set aside.

"_Look Beyond the Music_!" She suddenly screamed.

"Hermione, can you keep quiet? We're not on the safe side until we get back! Harry said angrily.

"Sorry," she whispered. I felt so much excitement radiating from her that I was feeling out of place.__

"Open the Sleeping Mind, Retrieve the Past, Potions and Dust..." Her eyes shined even more with each passing title that escaped her lips. She was extremely jumpy that Harry dragged her away from me and placed her by the door, so she would keep watch. She would roll to her toes and back again. She moaned with agitation and fired piercing glances at Harry.

"I can't stand here!" She finally said and marched back to the shelf.

"What are you so exited about? Haven't you ever seen books?" Harry walked back to the door arms crossed.

"Not like these. These books are not even in the Restriction Section at the Wizard Library, not to mention Hogwarts. The Ministry in the Department of Mysteries protects them!" She flipped through the pages of _Imagine, Create, Feel, and Use._

"How is it that you have them, then?" Harry asked skeptically. I really didn't want to tell them anything. Besides there wasn't that much that I could have told them.

"Don't you give me that! How did you get those books?" Harry studied me carefully. I didn't want to look at him, but maybe that was a wrong course to take.

"What are you hiding?"

"Oh Harry, you're unbelievable!" I snapped. "Are you telling me everything about yourself?" He looked at me bewildered. His eyes fell to the floor and his cheeks flushed.

"Thought so." I said furiously.

"Well, why are you changing the subject to myself?"

"I'm not! I just wanted to know if you told me everything and obviously you haven't. Do you think you're the only one that can have secrets?"

"My secrets don't involve steeling!"

"I didn't steel anything!"

"For all I know you might have!"

"So now you're telling me that you don't trust me! That's really brilliant!"

"Well...I..."

"Have I given you a reason to doubt me?"

"No! But I know you for only a week!"

"Guess what? There is nothing else that you can find out about me. If you do, then I had no idea about it. What you see is what you get. There is nothing behind the way I present myself!"

"Can you keep it down!" Hermione hissed. I wasn't aware of the volume with which we spoke, and I guess Harry wasn't either.

"Sorry," he whispered.

"Forget it. Listen, I don't want you to judge me by what my mother did, and I don't know the whole story myself."

"You can trust us! We won't judge you by whatever you didn't do." Hermione said softly.

"Fine, my mother worked in the Ministry of Magic. She was in the Department of Mysteries at the book division. I don't know why she needed the books, but I read em, and I found them quite interesting. I heard her telling dad that she enchanted some muggle manuscripts to take the appearance of the once she has taken." They both looked at me, mouth adjured, eyes full of amazement. All I could do was look back at them and expect some reaction, but none followed. We just sat in silence.

Silence, however, proofed to be more efficient then conversations; I managed to gather all that I've needed much faster then if we were talking. I've spent a significant amount of time looking for the key to my bank account. I finally founded it in a drawer full of socks. There was also a gold chain with an amulet in a form of a serpent that held two emerald letters **CM**.

I remember wearing it when I was little. Mum took it away from me when I was six. I looked for it everywhere, but she hid it well. I wonder why she placed it in a drawer of socks.

"O.K. all we need now is get to my room and gather my trunk." Both of them nodded.

My room was still a mess. All of the papers that were knocked off my desk lay on the floor among my cloths. The bed was upside down, the chairs were kicked over, and the mirror was shattered into millions of pieces. There was a black mark that was made by the spell I've send at the Death Eater whom retaliated quite quickly.

I didn't take long to check the appearances of the room. It only brought me bad memories. I ran to my trunk and flipped open the cover. Harry and Hermione helped me assemble everything inside.

"Locomotive Suitcase" Hermione whispered, and we began to head towards the stairs. The moon was just rising. I often watched it from my room.

"We need to clean the house before dusk." We suddenly heard. Harry sharply came to a stop. I was too bewildered by the familiar voice to notice his stop. I painfully collided with him, and pushed him forward that he fell down a couple of stairs. Apparently Hermione was also too shocked to notice our stop and walked into me. A chain reaction, some would say. Just because of our chain, the flying trunk hit Hermione and fell to the floor with a loud thud.

"Shit," she hissed.

Immediately the people downstairs rushed towards us to encounter us. Before we could think of anywhere to hide, four figures were standing before us, wand in hand.

"What are you three doing here?" Mad-Eye-Moody looked at as questionably. His magical eye fell onto Harry.

"We helped Katie get..." Harry began.

"First of all you don't know a Katie. She's not Katie anymore, but Natalie. Albus, we'll need to do something with their tongs, or they'll blather everything to the first person they'll meet at Hogwarts." Snape looked at us plainly disgusted. Dumbledore nodded in agreement.

"Second of all," Snape began again; "it is not your responsibility to worry about anyone's belongings. Have you asked anyone about them?" He looked at me. We all kept silent. All of our eyes were focused on the floor. I saw Harry giving Snape a hateful stare, but I couldn't summon enough courage to look at him at all. It was bad enough on hearing him speaking without looking at him.

"Third of all you three are having detentions as soon as the classes begin. I'll see you at five o'clock sharp. Tell Mr. Weasley that he should report with you three, as he probably knew about your little scam and failed to notify anyone about it."

"Professor!" Harry protested, but was interrupted by Dumbledore.

"It is wise that you three follow Professor Snape's directions. You shouldn't

have been here in the first place."

"But Ron had nothing to do with this." Hermione protested.

"He didn't know about this?" Snape asked her slyly.

"No he hasn't." Hermione answered firmly.

"Miss Granger I despise liars. I think we'll add another detention for you."

"That would be enough you three." Professor Dumbledore said before Harry could say anything else. "Now, Professor Lupin will assist you back to Black Manor, and you'll..." He stopped and gazed at Lupin. Lupin was scared to death of something. His eyes shifted from the window, where the full moon gave off a gentle light, to his own hands that were covered by fur. His nails sharpened and lengthened.

Hermione shrieked and reached for her wand. Harry backed me away and stood before Hermione and myself. Dumbledore pointed the wand at Professor Lupin that howled in the corridor. Snape, Mad-Eye-Moody, and Mr. Weasley rushed towards us.

"I forgot to give him the potion!" Snape screamed, as the wolf like figure jumped at Dumbledore.

"You what!" Mr. Weasley shouted heatedly.

"Stop with the drama! It became ready just a little while ago. He forgot to mention it to me!"

"Stupefy!" Dumbledore shouted. Lupin jumped away from him and leaped on top of Snape and Mad-Eye. I heard them swearing and cursing the beast. Mad-Eye's eye was rolling away from him, as he fiercely tried to keep the creature from biting him.

Dumbledore tried some more spells that achieved nothing. Lupin just hopped from one corner of the room to the next, ripping the wallpaper with his claws and scratching the wooden floor.

Harry desperately observed Dumbledore's hopeless attempts on catching the wolf. Hermione was standing behind him and murmuring something with her wand closely to her. Mad-Eye and Snape lay on the floor unconscious. Mr. Weasley urged Dumbledore to aim left or right, but only managed to confuse him.

"What are you doing?" Harry yelled, as I charged towards Lupin while his back faced me. I reached for his fur and caught a frightful look from Dumbledore, as he ran forwards to drag me away. I heard Hermione screech before the room began spinning before me. I was holding something heavy that struggled to get free. I wasn't sure of where I was going, but I needed to get the creature away from everyone else.

Finally my feet touched the ground. Before Lupin realized what happened, I shouted, "Petrificus Totalus." He fell into a puddle of water both arms and legs glued to his body. I was out of breath and extremely hot. My cloths clenched to my skin. For the first time I managed to take a look at my surroundings. The dirty leaves lay below my feet, decaying for centuries. The sky was barely visible above the canopy of leaves. Heavy branches hanged low, almost touching the wet earth.

I bend down to examine my professor that lay motionless. His teeth were sticking out from under his upper lip. His eyes were yellow and cold compared to their softness and care on a normal day.

"And Hermione told me not to worry!" I thought accusingly.

"What can a simple bite do to a noble man!" My fingers brushed off him when the

world changed in my eyes, and I was no longer in the forest.

__

"Jake! Jake! Where are you?" A small, thin woman ran around the house, pocking her head into each room that she passed. Her black hair fell to her shoulders in a most untidy way. Her blue eyes were filled with tears. She sobbed trying to hold them in, but no such luck. _Her once white dress was ripped in some places and covert in dirt._

"Jake, where are you?" Her voice was cracking with each painful shout. The sound was cutting her throat, but managed to escape her lips.

She was holding the hand of a small boy that rubbed his red, puffy eyes and dragged along with his mother. His feet were barely holding him, but he kept on moving after her.

"Mummy," he suddenly said.

"What is it baby?" The young mother bend down to be face to face with her little boy. Her gentle hand brushed his light brown locks from his eyes. "What is it?" She repeated.

"Where is daddy?"

"Oh honey. I'm looking for him." She managed to force out of her. Her lips trembling.

"I miss him. Who did this?" The boy pointed at the torn down walls, scratched linoleum, and crashed windows.

"Oh Remus, we'll get there soon. We'll get to the place where your daddy is. He must be home." She pushed him into her arms and hugged him tautly to herself.

" Rrrrrrrre! Rrrrrrr!"

"Ah! Mummy!" A huge gray wolf dragged him out of his mother's arms.

"Remus!" Two more such wolfs jumped to the woman, ripping her into pieces.

"Stupefy!"

"Stupefy!"

"Stupefy!"

Three blurry figures appeared before Remus that lay shaking on the floor, blood running down his leg.

"He needs Healer's attention!"

"I know that voice!" I suddenly heard myself say.

__

"Minerva apparate the boy to St. Mungo's._ I'm afraid he has to rest and recover before we can tell him anything. He will have to deal with more then he must, when he'll awake." Minerva's eyes drifted to the bloody figure that now lay motionless on the cold floor._

"Oh Albus! The poor child!"

"Go quickly, or it will be too late."

The scene before me drifted sideways, and I came back to the dead of night. My hands were blue from the chilling wind. Cold tears slowly proceeded down my cheeks.

"He was a werewolf for many years. He lost his parents at most being three years old." I thought.

I once again placed my hands on him, curious if I'll see more.

__

"You're lying!" Remus cried into his pillow. Two med-wizards stood besides his bed. Not far away from them sat an elderly man with a long silver beard. He wore dark blue robes that resembled the night sky. His bright gray eyes sparkled under his half moon spectacles. His face was expressing pain and sorrow, but kindness escaped his every glance at the tragic scene before him.

"I saw her," Remus continued crying. He was choking on his own tears. His mouth felt dry and his body icy.

"Lift over child!" One of the med-wizards ordered. "It's not going to do you any good denying the facts that are laid out before you! Are you blind?"

"That will be enough!" Dumbledore's low voice ran through the hospital room. "I'll ask for you two to leave. I'll speak with the boy myself."

"But we have to..."

"I'll call you back when he is ready. In his condition, it is not wise for you to engage in a conversation." The two med-wizards exchanged glances and walked out of the chamber.

Dumbledore proceeded up to the little bed in which lay the quivering body in blue velvet pajamas.

"Have you ever heard of a beautiful bird with flaming feathers?" He began. There was no answer.

"It is a marvelous bird called the Phoenix. I have one at the castle where I live."

"You have a Phoenix?" Remus shouted, jumping from under his pillow and glaring at the old man.

"Yes, Do you know why Phoenixes are so unique?" The small boy shook his head. "Because they never leave this world. Their death is just a plain fire. The body turns into ashes from which a new such bird is born. You see, your parents died, but it doesn't mean you'll never see them again. They are still alive and are waiting for you."

"They are?" The boy asked surprised. "Are they going to come back again?"

"I'm afraid your parents are not birds, but the good part about being a human is that if you'll live an honorable life, you'll see them again when you'll get older."

"You promise?"

"I do. Now, about you being a wolf, it's not that bad. It's only once a month and during a single night. You have nothing to worry about. I'll make arrangements for you; you'll have a place to stay and a place to go that night. You'll got to school in six years. You are a normal boy like everyone else."

My thoughts began to retrieve from the memory of my professor into reality. I felt terribly cold. My teeth were chattering. I felt something soft upon my shoulders. I looked up to see a very tiered face of Professor Lupin. His black silk clock embraced me, and his hands were firmly set upon my arms. The first light of sun created a white line just above the horizon, as now we stood on the balcony to my room at Black Manor.

"Professor!"

"Are you ok? Have I injured you? Is there any blood upon your skin?" He looked over me carefully, circled me about, and scrutinized my face.

"I'm fine, don't worry. It is you that I'm concerned about." He let go of me and turned away to walk inside.

"Please don't go! I want to help!"

"You can't!"

"You're wrong! You have friends that care about you; I care, too. I feel so close to you. I lost my family in a blink of an eye, and the first person I saw was you. I felt a connection and wasn't sure what it was all about. I didn't want anyone entering my life, but you and Harry, Hermione, Ron, became my new life. You're like my father, and I know it sounds stupid, but you're the closest person I can relate to. I don't care if you're Voldemort himself; my mind wouldn't change if you're the person you seem to be. I can help, and you can help me!"

"I have nothing to offer." With this he walked out. I heard the door shutting with a loud bang. I came so attached to him that it felt my father died again.

A/N

I'm done with chapter 11! Yay! I hope you'll enjoy it! I'm going to post a prologue so next time you're going to read check it out. You might get some useful information with the turn of the story.

Enjoy!


	13. Ron and Life

****

Chapter 12

Ron and Life

I isolated myself within my compartment sitting on the soft red sofa lost within my own thoughts. My head was pressed against the cold window. My eyes followed the crowed that eagerly awaited the departure of the train. The kids ran about the corridors excitedly talking about their summer and discussing their expectations for another year at Hogwarts. First years confusingly walked about the platform with cages in their hands and backpacks full of food. Their parents warned them about the dangers of the school and what is completely forbidden by their family rules. Muggle parents expected letters from their kids on daily bases with no exceptions.

Hermione's folks also came to wish their daughter a safe year. I did not stay long with them. My mood was in no condition to communicate with such fine people like themselves, and I did not wish to say something I would regret in the long run. I politely excused myself from their company and slipped into the warmth of the train. I did it purposely quiet, so no one would miss my presents until the leave.

Harry was communicating with Fred and George, while Ginny stood by their side soaked in their conversation. I could hear bits and parts of many different topics and decided to ignore them all together. My thoughts were focused on the child version of Professor Lupin and his young mother.

"What tragic end they came to," I though, "I wouldn't wish something as this to my enemy, and I have many. I wonder if he lived in a forest."

"Well wolfs don't run about in the city." Another voice spoke within my thoughts.

"Where they attacked because someone has sent them?"

"But who would send them? I mean Voldemort wasn't in his power just yet. He was still a student, if I'm not mistaking."

"But why then? Does the professor know? I'm sure Dumbledore would know. I bet he knew beforehand. Why did he show up at the moment the werewolves attacked? Have he received a message? What about Professor Lupin's father? Did he die? Of course! He must have."

"Stop! It does no good to think about it! What for are you thinking about it all?"

"Just get out of my thoughts!" I've said aloud violently shacking my head.

"Ron hurry up! The train is going to leave in just a minute! What's wrong with you today?" My attention was switched to Mrs. Weasley that was blathering in a loud tone, as her red haired boy gloomily walked after her. Mr. Weasley followed them rolling the trolley stack with a trunk and a cage in which a small brown owl zoomed about.

"Arthur, how lovely to meet you." A tall man sweetly said. My eyes froze on him. It was Lucius Malfoy. The memory of mum vividly played before me. I couldn't remove my eyes from him. He was quite handsome like Madam Malkin remarked, but there was no warmth about him. His eyes were captivating, but they radiated a frost that placed fear within me.

"What do you wish from me Lucius?" Mr. Weasley sharply asked as soon as Mr. Malfoy finished his phrase.

"Why such a harsh tone? I have not seen you for this whole summer. Was your little vocation constructive? I hope it did not affect your poor financial status." I heard the

gentle jingling of metal within his robes, as he placed one of his hands into his pocket.

Mr. Weasley tightly clenched his teeth and angrily stared at his speaker.

"Go on about your business Malfoy! You have none here!" Mrs. Weasley pressed on nervously.

"Right you are!" Mr. Malfoy said loudly. "I have no business talking to people inferior to my own state. I'm glad you brought me back to my senses. How thankful I am." He turned on his heels and left the three red haired figures standing bright red in their faces at the middle of the platform.

"Come on Ron!" Hermione screamed eagerly. The loud whistle blew, and the steam rose over the heads of the passengers.

The sleepless night came over me at last. My eyelids slowly slipped down, as my mind wished to be shut down for the time being. However, something caped it awake. Mrs. Weasley was crying when I entered the kitchen this morning. Her husband was circling about her nervously, biting his nails. Sirius sat by the fire. One of his feet rested upon his knee fervently shacking. Ron was so pallid, it seemed he was going to faint.

"Katie!" Harry screamed, suddenly appearing before me with a loud crack. Everyone turned my way.

"Oh dear! You're freezing cold!" Mrs. Weasley hugged me and escorted me to the fire. I was keen for the warmth, as the night chilled me down to my bones.

"Are you ok?" Sirius asked uneasy. I bet I looked as white as Ron. I bet they thought I was bitten.

"I'm fine. Don't worry I wasn't harmed in any way." I could barely hear my own voice; however, the exhales of relief filled the room pretty loudly.

"I'll make you some hot chocolate. It will help you warm up much faster."

"We were worried sick! The moment you left, Dumbledore raised the alarm. He thought Professor Lupin would kill you. He had no idea of where you could have taken him. He didn't even know you could apparate. All three of us got a bad shaking!" Harry looked at Ron.

"Hermione was crying ever since. Professor Snape and Mad-Eye were sent to the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts. However, Professor Snape will be attending his classes tomorrow." He said disappointedly.

"Harry!" Mrs. Weasley gave him an irritated look and went back to the hot chocolate.

"Well, anyways that is what happened. Does Professor Dumbledore know that they are back?"

"I expect so." Sirius was down. His spirit was dwindling for some reason. He was gloomier then ever.

"Here you go dear;" Mrs. Weasley pushed Harry aside and handed me a cup of warm and sweet chocolate.

"Where did you take Professor Lupin? Did he bit you?"

"Ginny!"

"What? I just want to know!"

"Go upstairs and get ready! We'll be leaving soon."

"But mum! I want to hear of what she has to say!"

"I said go!" Ginny went out mumbling to herself, loudly colliding her feet with the floor.

"Well, it is interesting where you took him." Harry whispered to me.

"I got Professor Lupin to a forest of some sort. I don't know which one; you can ask him yourself. I guess he would know." I took another sip of my drink. Ron walked out of the kitchen. I could tell he was relieved.

"What came of my things?"

"Oh, Professor Dumbledore brought them to school. He was furious! I only saw him like this when he was fighting Voldemort in my fifth year." The remaining Weasley's flinched, but Sirius remained fully composed.

"He gave Hermione and me a lecture about how ruthless we were. Pretty useless if you must know."

"How so?" Sirius asked arms crossed. His thin lips turned into a grin.

"For one, Hermione was in no condition to listen. Secondly, I was too preoccupied with Katie to listen."

Here the conversation turned back to our most favorite subject about my name.

I came back to the comfortable red seats, as the train began moving. Harry slid the compartment door and sat besides me. Ron and Hermione sat opposite of us.

"What a day!" Hermione said looking out of the window. The cold droplets of rain knocked on it drifting my concentration to its gentle drumming. The chilly rain abruptly replaced the hot days. The gloomy weather fitted well with my morose spirit.

" We need to get some sleep. We have a long way to go." Harry gazed at me softly.

"I don't think I want to sleep on the train, not when Malfoy's around. He can pool a prank on us at any moment." Hermione said bitterly and glanced at the compartment door. Someone was giggling just behind it.

"I have a feeling that they are preparing something this very minute." Ron quietly said.

"That's it!" Harry jumped off his seat. Sliding open the door he quickly moved the upper portion of his body to the left. Small round things were fired at the supposed Harry, but collided with the window instead. As they smashed, the compartment was experiencing the most outrageous smell that I ever came to face with. Harry waited for the attack to be over and took out his wand.

"Tarantallegra!" He shouted three times. He leaped further back into the compartment as Draco's head appeared before us, shaking violently. Someone was shouting for help outside my view, but I very well knew who it could be.

"You'll pay for this Potter!" Draco spat out trying very hard to keep his voice steady.

"Pay for what Malfoy?" Ron screamed disgustedly. "Pay for the trash you turned this place to? Or maybe for his excellent spell that he performed on you three? He needs to practice on someone." He said as a mater-of-fact.

Draco removed the curse from him and pointed his wand at Harry. Before anyone could do anything, he shouted, " Engorgio!" A light blue spark rushed to Harry's face and hit him head on. It knocked him off his feet to the floor. With a dull thud he lay quietly on the ground.

"Harry!" Hermione shouted.

"Are you ok?" I asked.

"You'll pay for this Malfoy!"

"I suppose the great wizard like you will take me out off the picture. Don't make me laugh! Your wand is a trash, and your whole family is a joke!" Ron's ears turned red, and he jumped on Draco placing hits on his face.

"Break it up!" I jumped away from Harry to drag them apart. Grabbing Ron by his sweater I began pulling him away.

"Leave me alone!" He shouted.

"That's it!" I took out my wand, "Stupefy!" He fell to the floor.

"Draco, You are not welcome here! Take your unwanted behind out and don't spoil our day! I had enough and don't need some immature dweeb ruining my day any further!" He stared at me quite confused, but didn't move an inch.

"Are you deaf? I said get the hell out of here!" I pushed him out of the door and slit the it closed placing a locking charm on it.

"Finito Incantados," I whispered pointing my wand at Ron.

"What did you do that for!" He screamed as soon as his eyes opened.

"Do you want another detention? I think you had enough! If it's that easy to get you all boiled up, then what will happen when you'll start working? What will you do if both of you were working in the same place? Don't look at me like that! I saw your dad and Lucius Malfoy, and they are obviously not best friends! If your father jumped at him every time Mr. Malfoy insulted your family, he would have been jobless. Life is not that simple Ron!"

"When I'll need help I'll ask for it otherwise don't help me!"

"Then I wouldn't want to help you even if you'll ask! Life is not what you want! It's how you act out before people, how you communicate with them, how they see you! You're such a baby!"

"A baby am I?"

"Maybe you should have your own head on your shoulders and not follow what Hermione and Harry tells you to do. Sometimes friends are not there to help you. You have to make your own decision that will affect the rest of your school years, your career, and your whole existence! Obviously you don't know how to do that!"

"You...I...you are..."

"Save it Ron for someone who cares! I saw what I saw and made out the conclusion. What you'll say is just wards. Telling something is much easier then showing it."

"Can you stop arguing!" Hermione screamed. "Look at Harry!" His face was very swollen. He could barely open his eyes or move his lips.

"It's not dangerous. It's just a stupid spell and not a very good one. A first year will be able to do it much more efficiently." I conjured a glass with ice. "Here, take out some cloth and put the ice into it. Place it over his face. It should remove the spell in about fifteen minutes. I'm going out!"

"Where are you going?" Hermione asked me very worried.

"I need to be alone for a while. I can't think clearly. I'm going to be in the whole just behind the door." With that settled I slid open the door and stepped out, as Hermione and Ron engaged into another quarrel.

A/N

Sorry it took so long to update! I might have rushed through the chapter, but their kind of not much to say. What house is Katie most likely to be placed to? I hope you'll guess right!

I'm writing a new story called Through the Marble Doors. I hope you'll reed it.

__

Harry wants revenge for his godfather's death, but an unexpected letter arrives to him at Number Four Privet Drive. Harry is not the only Potter left, and that person holds the past of Lily and James Potter. As everything clears out can Harry give up his relative to his enemy?


	14. Was the Hat Wrong?

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Chapter 13

Was the Hat Wrong?

Ron and Hermione quarreled for a long time. I stood before the open window and bathed in the cool wind. The droplets of rain fell to my face and cooled me down from Ron's stupidity. My head was full of thoughts, but it turned into mud that I couldn't distinguish one from the other.

I could feel someone looking my way. I turned my head to the left where a bunch of first years stared at me and at the door of my compartment. I guess they saw the expose that took place just moments earlier. Some of them whispered to one another and others laughed their heads off.

"Are you ok?" I heard Harry's voice. I turned to face him. His face was back to normal. His eyes were still a little red, and he was rubbing his scar squinting at times from pain.

"I should be asking you that. What's up? Is something wrong?"

"No, it's nothing. It's just my stupid scar. When Voldemort is angry, or happy, or near it hurts." On the mention of Voldemort the kids looking at us took a deep breath and held it for a long time. Harry looked at them and shook his head.

"They should get used to his name by now. If we don't say it, it doesn't mean his not around. He is! If we keep it to our selves then it makes the fear much stronger." Harry told me. His voice was quiet and delicate. He seemed to be like a little child that was lost in the great unknown of the big world.

"Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I died as a baby. I wonder what the magical world would have turned to. Would everything be destroyed or would there been someone that could kill him? Even Dumbledore can't kill him. It's impossible. They all thing that I will destroy him, but will I? If I will then my life is short, as I have to die to his wand as he to mine."

"That's an optimistic attitude. You have friends that will help you on the way. He has only followers that do not wish to die. Do you think they'll protect him seeing that he's on the verge of dying? I think there is a slight chance of it. On the other hand you have friends that will do anything for you, even die."

"You would do it?"

"Of course I will! I would come out of my grave to protect you from him. I would die for you, Hermione, Ginny, and even Ron."

"What's the deal between you and Ron anyways?"

"It's a long story."

"We have a long way to go."

"I don't want to talk about it." I walked back to the compartment that smelled of garlic, onions, and spoiled eggs and fell to my seat. Holding my legs closer to myself, I was once again absorbed in my own thoughts and ignored everyone around me.

I didn't go back to my senses until Hermione shook me out of my dream world to get dressed. It was dark by then. Everyone was already dressed in their Hogwarts robes. I rushed to my bag.

"Oh wait, my things are in school already. What should I do?"

"Just go in with what you're wearing now. There's little you could do." Hermione answered as the brakes of the train squealed into the night.

We stepped out into the cold air shivering from head to toe. Ron was speaking to neither Hermione nor me. Harry stood by him and explained that we were only trying to bring him good, but he only managed to agitate Ron even further. Hermione led me to a carriage that was tied to a bony black horse. It had white eyes that looked my way. I was so scared of them that I jumped into the carriage to not see them.

"What's up?"

"Why do you have such horrible creatures pulling the sled?"

"Oh you can see them too?"

"What do you mean too? Can't you see them?"

"Nope."

"Well why not?"

"Don't you know what they are?" Hermione asked me very surprised. I shook my head, and she gave out a great sigh. "I guess you're like Ron and Harry. Do you even read on your own?"

"Of course I do!" I protested.

"Ok, sorry! They are called _thestrals_. You can only see them if you saw someone else die."

"Who died?" Harry asked settling by Hermione.

"No one died." She rolled her eyes. She tried to say something, but her lips didn't move.

"What's wrong?"

"Harry I can't say her name!" She whispered.

"That's ok," I told them, "Dumbledore placed a silencing charm on you. You can only use Natalie. He doesn't want to make others suspicious of me. You, Hermione, could have given me away!" I added angrily.

"Sorry, well Natalie said she could see the thestrals."

"Really?" Harry's eyes enlarged. "Who did you see die?"

"My dad," I answered plainly. My thoughts went back to the rainy day when I last saw him.

"My mum and I were home alone." I began telling them. "He was supposed to come in an hour for dinner. He called in that he was going to be late because the workers at his job needed him for something. He was a Healer, and a very good one, too. Mum was kind of upset, because it was his birthday and some people were suppose to come.

We continued making dinner like we were before the call. It was raining very hard outside, so we knew people were going to apparate to our house, so we were not surprised to hear loud cracks somewhere within the house. Such a crack followed after sometime passed from dad's call. He appeared before us himself and urged us to pack the most necessary things and get out. He was scared. It was the first time I saw him that way.

Mum rushed to her room to get the things ready when a Death Eater appeared before dad. I screamed and mum rushed down to help, but she was late because dad didn't know what even hit him. The green light pierced his body and he fell to the floor. I ran out of the kitchen but tripped on the carpet. He didn't want to kill me. He just walked on to me and stretched his hands, as if to hold me. Mum got into the room at that moment and killed him. I never saw her so angry before. Her eyes were like two flames. She reached for me and apparated me to Dumbledore's office at Hogwarts.

She explained everything to him, and he told us that there's a house in the muggle community where we could take shelter. That's how I came to live here." I finished. They looked at me with amazement. The sled was already by the entrance to the school, and we departed.

"That's crazy!" Harry began angrily. "Why does he need you anyways?"

"Who knows? He's complicated. You never know what will come his way."

"But why?"

"Miss Weasley!" I heard behind me. I turned around to see Professor Snape coming my way. " You are to be sorted after all the first years. It is the headmaster's wish that you accompany me to the staff table, as you have to wait out a long line of children that will come before you. Please follow me." He turned on his heels and walked away from us. I looked at the trio that stood before me and followed Snape.

He walked quite fast, and I almost had to run to keep up. He came to a large door that slid open on it's own and walked me through. I found myself before a table of teachers that chattered among themselves. Snape motioned me to sit by Professor Dumbledore until the time was right. As I walked down to the red chair where he sat, the students curiously looked my way.

"Hello Miss Weasley. How was your trip?" The headmaster asked me joyfully.

"Fine, thank you." Professor Lupin sat by Snape and a chubby lady with curly gray hair. They were engaged in a conversation, and he seemed quite over his little mood swing that took place this morning. I really wanted to talk to him, but he didn't even look my way.

The doors to the Great Hall opened and Professor McGonagall walked in with a bunch of first years that looked about the hall. I heard many "wows" as they looked at the ceiling that looked like the night sky. However, it was hard to see any stars, as the sky was covered by gray clouds from which the rain fell and disappeared before reaching anyone's head.

"Before we begin, Professor Dumbledore has some first term announcements to make." Professor McGonagall said. Professor Dumbledore rose from his red chair and looked into the hall.

"I welcome you all to another wonderful year at Hogwarts. I, like many others, wished for this day to come from the last day of last year. First years I would like to inform you that the Forbidden Forest is off limits to all Hogwarts students." His look stopped on Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "Further more, we have a new student that will join the seven years. She comes from Dumstrang, and I hope you'll make her stay here much easier. Before the feast we would sort the first years into their houses to be welcomed by their classmates."

"Now when I call your name, you'll come forth and I'll place this Sorting Hat on your head." She pointed her hand to an old hat that lay on a wooden stool. All of a sudden it began to move, and a raspy voice escaped what seemed like its mouth.

__

Another year at Hogwarts

The older once will see,

But it is better to allow

The new blood to flow free.

__

I would like to introduce

The houses of the school.

In which the old once settles

Along with the new.

The first one I will bring to you

The sly and cunning lot

The once that are the cleverest

Out of the four we got.

They call themselves as Slytherin

And surely the name fits

They are the once dressed in bright green

At the furthest left.

The Hufflepuff are the sweet bunch

That care for all the others

They are not thought as very great

But kindness is their power

The once that fall under their name

Have purest hearts desire

And I will gladly reward them

With Hufflepuff attire.

The Ravenclaw will teach the once

Whose intelligence is surest.

The once with the sharpest mind

And knowledge of the wisest.

They quietly sit besides the pure

With all their classmates thinking.

They probably are planning to

Visit the library's linking.

And finally I bring to you

The bravest of the lot

The once that'll safe the weakest

With last breath they've got.

I introduce to you the Griffindor

Placed in the middle right

The once that have the colors of the sun

Of yellow and bright red.

I lived for many years and saw

The fighting of you four

And wish no more to see such scenes

Knocking on my door

Remember that if you unite

Your powers will surly glow

And the stronger your friendship is

The mightier you'll grow.

Now take a sit on this old stool

And put me on to see

Where you belong to be put

I'll surly know where you'll be.

The hat fell into silence and Professor McGonagall began calling names. There were many that passed.

"Arabelle Anoves" A skinny girl with short blond hair walked up to the stool and placed the hat on her head. It wasn't long before it responded.

"RAVENCLAW!" The Ravenclaw table began to cheer for their new smart friend.

"John Ballwin"

"HUFFLEPUFF!

"Julia Coleman"

"SLYTHERIN!"

Finally the first years were seated at their table and they called me to the chair. I slowly proceeded to the stool and the hat was placed to my head.

"Ah you are here at last! I waited a long time to see where you ought to be. I have to tell you that you're father's roots are stronger then what your mother left."

"What do you mean?"

"Your transformation might fool the once around you, but I see everything that hides within your head. Everything you know and everything you don't know."

"What don't I know?"

"Ah that's not for me to tell. I see you want to be with your friends. A nice bunch they are. They are brave and strong, and so are you."

"So do you mean I'll be place to Griffindor?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Why not?"

"Because you will be an outsider there. You'll feel the same way as when you go about with Ron Weasley and his sister. They are true Griffindores, as for Harry and Hermione they have other roots placed into them. Harry Potter has a bit of Slytherin in him, and Miss Granger has a sharp mind like Ravenclaw. You my dear have a strong mix of all three houses. You are a Ravenclaw, a Griffindor, and a Slytherin. I'm afraid you are more of Slytherin then any."

"You wrong!" I thought with panic. "You wrong! I have nothing of this sort in me!"

"SLYTHERIN!" My heart began pounding faster, and my eyes fell on to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. All of them sat there dumbfounded. Their mouths were open, and they stared at me greatly surprised. There were no cheers from the Slytherin. As I walked up to my table I heard different remarks.

"A Weasley in Slytherin? What disgrace!"

I passed Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle. They studied me carefully. Draco smirked as I proceeded. His eyes glittered, but I decided not to look at him. Quickly passing them, I settled at the end of the table away from everyone. Taking a glance at Dumbledore, I knew that he have known long time ago where I'll be.

A/N

Well I thought long and hard of where to sort her into and decided that Slytherin is the best place to put her in. I'm not sure how it will turn out, but I'm hopping it will be in a positive way. Can you imagine what Ron will think of her now?

Well, I've got more things coming.

hunni07: I'm wondering what was confusing about the previous chapter. Was it how she went back from the train to the kitchen and so one? Well, if you might tell me! LOL

Cheers to all!


	15. Let the Fun Begin

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Chapter 14

Let the Fun Begin

The food magically appeared before me, but it didn't do any good. My spirit was so down that I felt like the world was falling under my feet. I was left alone in an unknown school. I entered into the house where no one excepts the Weasleys. I'm with the people that are sly and untrustworthy. I thought I was in hell for sure.

"Like this morning was not enough?" I thought. I lowered my head on to the table and wished everything to be a dream.

"Welcome to the team."

"That is exactly what I need." I thought. "Why does he have to come here? Wasn't it enough to sit at the head of the Slytherin table?"

"Is anyone there?"

"Everyone is in there! Stop waiving your greasy hands before my face!" I pushed away his hand and looked at him.

"My name is..."

"I very well know what your name is! Is it everything you wish to tell me?"

"I'm not sure you are fully aware of who I am! My name is Draco Malfoy, and this house runs by my rules!"

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I don't go by any one's rules but my own. Now if it's everything, I would like you to leave me to lament on my misfortunes." I turned away from him and placed my head on to the table.

"Slytherin is not that bad."

"For people like you." I mumbled. He moved away a girl that was sitting by me and occupied her sit.

"My whole family was in Slytherin, and all of them turned out to be fine. They are great wizards and most importantly, pure." He said proudly. I looked at his arrogant face and was overwhelmed with disgust.

"You can put your pure roots up your behind Malfoy! I kicked you out of my compartment don't make me do it again. You were embarrassed before your two buddies; there would be the whole school that'll see you this time."

"Are you trying to scare me?"

"Leave her alone Malfoy!" I looked up to see Hermione by my side.

"Get away from here Granger. This corner of the school is not for Mudbloods like you!"

"Shut your trap Malfoy!" I jumped off my seat, reached for Hermione's hand and pulled her away from the Great Hall.

"What a jerk!" I told her.

"Wait! Slow down!" Hermione was running behind me. I didn't notice that I was still holding her. My grip was so tight that when I've let go the light tint of purple began to appear about her wrist.

"I'm really sorry!"

"Don't worry! Do you remember about the potion?"

"You still want to do it? You want to have a friend in Slytherin?"

"Natalie, it's just a name under which you go. You're my friend right now because of who you are. It will not be fair to turn away from you just because you got into Slytherin. If I did that then I would not have been a very good friend."

"What about Harry and Ron?"

"Well, Ron is a bit shaky with the whole thing, and Harry doesn't care. He even wanted to punch Malfoy when he came over to bother you, but I told him I'd take care of it. I said it was a girl thing." She had a great gift to make people laugh. My mood was slowly uplifting to my normal state. I felt better and better each moment.

"I thought you'd turn away."

"You're silly! Well, what about the potion?"

"Do you have a place where we can prepare it?"

"In the girl's bathroom. I have to worn you that their is a ghost in there that can get on people's nerves."

"What are you talking about?"

"You remember Ron telling you about the Chamber of Secrets?"

"Ya..."

"Well, the entrance was in that bathroom. About fifty years ago a girl died, and she remained at Hogwarts ever since. She's not very friendly, and she moans allot. We call he Moaning Martle."

"Thanks for the warning; I guess. We have to get the herbs and all of it."

"We didn't find out the password!" Hermione was kind of worried. Her eyes scanned over the hall. "I forgot about the meeting! We got to go back. Listen, at midnight get out of your common room, and I'll be waiting for you. Get all the things we'll need. I have a cauldron and all the things for preparing the potion."

"We need two cauldrons."

"Ok, I'll get two. Lets go back to the Great Hall. Let me tell you something about the school. We have passwords to each common room. The students under that house are the only ones that know it. The staircases change, so you have to be careful. Otherwise the castle is not that confusing. Did you get everything?"

"Ya, I think so. Midnight, before my common room. I got it."

"Good!" We were once again in the crowded Great Hall. The kids were finishing with their food and chattered about God knows what. I ignored all the looks that were welcoming me. The Griffindores contemptuously stared at me. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs cautiously observed me. The Slytherins were just ignoring me completely. This strategy was excellent. They did exactly what I needed, leaved me alone and went about their own business.

Before I could sit back down a tall blond boy called all the students to follow him. I decided to walk not far away from him, as he probably held the password. We walked into a well like construction where many staircases moved back and forwards without a particular pattern.

I hurried after the first years also admiring the paintings that welcomed us. The Griffindores moved opposite of us. Some of the Slytherins began insulting Ginny and one of her friends. I saw her reaching for her wand and screaming a curse at one of Malfoy's friends. All the other kids rushed to see what was going on. Ron and Harry settled down to help her.

"Where are you going Potter?"

"To help Ginny to make dead meat out of you and your friends!"

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Harry's wand was stretched before him. His hands were shacking with rage. Ron's ears were burning red. Ginny's eyes were full of tears. I quickly rushed down to see what was going on. I fought through the crowd to reach the bottom of the stairs.

"Potter there is no reason to help your little dirty whore!"

"Malfoy!" I shouted. "Didn't you're mother teach you not to say anything if you have nothing nice to say?" I rushed to Ginny and reached for her hand. She lowered her wand and berried her burning hot face in my shoulder.

"What is the meaning of this?" Professor McGonagall ran into the hall! Her lips were barely visible. She was so angry that she gave me a chill.

"Nothing Professor McGonagall, Potter here decided to jinx me for no reason. Ginny cursed Goyle, and this girl over here," he motioned to me, "insulted me." Hermione's head poked from behind McGonagall, her face very confused.

"It is not very honorable to lie Mr. Malfoy." Professor McGonagall finally said.

"I did not! I have witnesses!"

"I don't want to hear any of it. Go to your dormitories immediately. You have classes tomorrow. An owl will bring your schedules during breakfast. Mr. Malfoy I suppose you forgot about the Head Boy meeting after the feast." She gave him an annoyed look.

"Well Professor McGonagall, I was here to stop the fight."

"Right, I'll see you tomorrow morning in my classroom to get everything about your new responsibility. Now go and have a good night."

"Malfoy? Malfoy as a Head Boy?" Hermione spat rushing up to us.

"I can't believe it!" Ron told her.

"Our life is officially over!"

"He'll make it a hell!" Hermione added and looked at Ginny and me.

"What did he say?" I asked Ginny that was crying.

"Nothing!" She turned around and rushed to the Griffindor tower.

"You should go," Harry told me. "You don't want to miss the password."

"Ya you right. Good night!" I turned around and rushed after the rest of the Slytherins.

We reached a long corridor that was dimly lit. There was a picture of an old man at the end of it. He seemed to be asleep. He wore a nightgown and was snoring into the hall that carried the sound through it. His long white beard was tied about his left arm, and his legs were crossed under the chair on which he sat on.

"It's time to wake Gabbers!" The blond boy said loudly. The old man gave out a loud snore and opened his eyes.

"Ah Jacob, you're back so soon! Have the school started already?"

"It very well has."

"I slept all through summer. An old man such as myself can't be aware of all the things that take place in this school! I got to tell you, however, that Dumbledore went out of line! His love for muggleborns is despicable!"

"You are quite right! We have the password!"

"Oh very well, we'll chat some other time."

"Thestral!" The portrait moved open reveling an opening in the wall. One by one they crawled inside. As I entered the common room the cold air wrapped about me. The place was cold and unwelcoming. The green sofas and silvery curtains created the appearance of a mausoleum. Even the fire that crackled in the fireplace was not comforting. My gloomy spirit became my friend once more. I felt distracted about everything.

"Come on, we'll show you where your room is." A lovely girl with black hair grabbed my hand and pulled me after her. Another girl, white as a sheet, followed us. We entered into a round room where five beds were located.

"A girl that used this bed had to move two years ago, and it's been empty ever since. We glad you can use it."

"Thank you."

"We never heard of a Weasley being in Slytherin. All of them were in Griffindor. I'm Mary by the way, Mary Jones." The pale girl with beautiful blond hair stretched out her arm. I gladly excepted it.

"I'm Nichole Wasterfly."

"I'm Natalie Weasley, nice to meet you."

"Don't mention it. We saw Draco talking to you. I wish he would speak to me. We got to worn you that everything in here runs by his rules. You wouldn't want to cross his path."

"I have my own path and if it happens to cross his then oh well." They stared at me dumfounded, as I prepared my bed. "What?"

"We heard you were opinionated, but we didn't think you'd be that opinionated."

"I say what I think."

"Why did the Sorting Hat place you in Slytherin? You don't seem it." I just shrugged my shoulders. It seemed to me that they were vain. Wind was blowing in their heads and there was nothing else about them.

"Mum bought me new perfume! You like to see?"

"Maybe some other time Mary. I'm tiered!"

"You just got here!"

"Ya I know but I had a busy night."

"Did you spend it with a boy?"

"What?"

"Have you spend your night with a boy? You said you were busy."

"Not everything is based on that!" I pulled my curtains closed and stretched out on the bed. All I had to do was wait until midnight.

I didn't have to wait long. They stopped chattering about lip-gloss and perfume in no time. I gathered all the things that I needed and sneaked out of the room. The common room was silent, and the only noise that could be heard in it was coming from the fire. I reached the door and turned the knob. Soundlessly the door opened, and I saw the outline of Hermione that was pacing about the corridor.

"Hermione!" I whispered.

"What took you so long?"

"Nothing, you just came too early. Where is the bathroom?"

"Come on follow me." We walked out of the dimly lit corridor and walked on for a long time. We had to move in the dark, as Snape and Filch were walking around. Hermione told me about Snape's extreme gift was to be at the place where they appear to be. The people in the frames slept in peace.

I don't remember for how long we were walking, but finally Hermione opened a door that gave off a low squeal and entered me in. The floor was wet, as the sinks were turned on with cold water.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked someone. I began to search for the one she was speaking to. A girl with two pigtails and round spectacles roamed about the bathroom, crying. Her voice was unbearable as she moaned into the night. I could see right through her. She must have been Moaning Martle.

"Oh hello Hermione!" The ghost said cheerfully. Her moaning abruptly stopped and she swarmed to us. "I thought you forgot about me! Where is Harry?"

"He's not coming tonight. This is Natalie; it's her first time at Hogwarts." Martle looked at me with her colorless eyes.

"What do you two want?"

"We're here to make a potion." Hermione placed two cauldrons to the floor and took out two spoons from the pocket of her robes. I followed her example and took out my ingredient box and a book where I found the potion.

"I'm glad that I took this book. I didn't want to at first, but it was the only one that had this potion in its contents." My fingers swiftly flipped through the pages until I reached the _Fate Potion_. "Ok what we need to do today is poor a cup of water and add _Angelica Root_, it gives a healing kind of aurora about you, so no one will suspect that you're under the effect of a potion."

"I'll look for it."

"Do you feel like someone is watching you?"

"Ya Martle! Here I got it!" Hermione pulled out a small root that looked like thin strands of hair. She ripped it in half and dropped it into the cauldron.

"Ok, now stir it three times counterclockwise." She followed my direction, but something stopped her, and her eyes began looking over her surroundings.

"What's wrong?"

"You are right, someone is watching us! Let's put everything away and go back!" She assembled all the things back to my little box and hid the cauldrons. Finally rising to her feet, she brushed away the dust from her robes and walked up to me.

"Ok, let's go."

"We-we-we should-should-we should RUN!"

"What do you see?"

"I'll tell you later! Let's RUN!" Hermione's head turned to look what I was so scared off. She saw a ghost, or that what I think it was. But it wasn't like all the other ghosts that I saw in the school. It was black with horrid features. Its hands were stretched out before her, and she tries to reach Hermione; however, Hermione's screech scared it away, and we began to run as fast as our feet could go.

"Over here professor!"

"What did you hear Filch!"

"It's professor Snape!" I whispered to Hermione. We came to a stop, so our loud pounding could stop vibrating through the hall.

"The Griffindor tower is not that far away. We can go there."

"But I'm not..."

"Who cares? If you go back to Slytherin, you would be caught for sure! Now come on, but quietly!" She reached for my hand, and we slowly walked up to a portrait of a really fat lady. She was serenely snoring into the blackness of the night from which the loud voice of Snape and Filch drew near.

"Wake up!" Hermione said trying to hush her voice. The Lady stirred and opened one of her eyes.

"You youngsters don't know how to behave yourselves. Give me the password and be gone."

"Apollo!" She said urgently. The picture opened and we rushed into the Griffindor common room. It was much more inviting and warm. I felt the heat rushing through my cold body. The reds and yellows were soothing to bad moods and fear that I just experienced.

"What was that?"

"I never saw it before. We better go to my room. You can spend the night in the Griffindor tower. I can share the bed; I'm not that picky."

"Thanks! Can I stay here forever? I hate the Slytherin tower. It's reeking with stealth. I hate it; it's not me."

"Come on!" We finally reached Hermione's bed, and tiered from the privies night I fell into troubled sleep.

A/N

Well I'm glad you all liked the previews chapter. Here's another.

hunni07: Ya I wrote the song on my own. You're right I have a bit of mistakes LOL I'm going to fix them later on.


	16. Severus Snape

****

Chapter 15

Severus Snape

"Hey wake up!" Hermione whispered to me. I was trying to hold on to the dream of the desert and a man that was leaving me. I was all alone and screamed for him, but he continued walking and did not turn back.

"Wake up!"

"What is it?" I asked lazily turning from one side to the other.

"We are in big trouble!" My eyes flew open, and they met hers. What was I doing here? Why was Hermione with me? Where was I?"

"Why will we get in trouble?"

"Calm down! We just need to get you out so McGonagall wouldn't see you."

"What about the kids?"

"Whatever, let's go." I jumped out of the bed and reached for my box. Walking after Hermione we met Harry and Ron that looked dumbfounded at us.

"What are you doing here?" Ron asked me. He was kind of amused about a Slytherin being in the Griffindor tower.

"We had an adventure last night." I answered him.

"What? You went somewhere without us?"

"Calm down Harry! We just went to the girl's bathroom." Hermione explained. Harry gave her an "oh" kind of look and looked at me.

"So how did you get in here?"

"Something scared us, and it was kind of late, and Snape was running after us, so we kind of hid inside here."

"You are in deep trouble! Some Slytherin girls told Snape that you didn't spend the night at your dormitory. He went to check on you today, and he found your bed empty."

"Ron you're kidding! You are, aren't you?"

"No, he's not! We heard it this morning."

"Oh shit! I'm going to die! I don't want to be questioned by Snape!"

"Come on, we better escort you back to the Slytherin tower."

"Can you guys wait for me before going to breakfast?"

"Ya sure! Come on." We walked down the stairs into the common room that was empty. Hermione gave out a sigh of relief that no one saw me. She opened the door, and we walked to the opposite side of the school.

"What did you see anyways?" Ron asked us curiously. I guess he was over our fight on the train and the little scene in the living room at Black Manor.

"I think it was a ghost."

"A really ugly one at that!"

"It didn't look human at all!"

"You think it was a ghost? Why do you think it?"

"Ron, we can tell a ghost from a troll. It was transparent and was floating above our heads! I'm just glad it didn't follow us."

"Me too. We're here; I'll be fast." I marched to the portrait of the old man. He looked at me with disgust, and his eyes shifted on Hermione, Harry, and Ron.

"Who are you?" He asked me.

"Oh, Natalie Weasley; I'm in Slytherin." His eyes were round as two galleons. He wanted to say something, but his tongue was tied in a knot.

"Who is this guy?"

"Shish!"

"Don't shish me!"

"Ron!"

"What?"

"Stop talking! It is Slytherin we're talking about! We're not welcome in here!"

"Both of you shut up!" Harry screamed at them.

"I never heard of a Weasley being in Slytherin." The old man began once again.

"I'm sorry that you haven't, but I suppose there's a first time for everything."

"Don't be smart with me little girl! I've been on this wall for about a century. I knew Salazar Slytherin himself! What a nice man he was..."

"Ya so nice that he decided to kill people!"

"RON!" All three of us screamed at him. The old man eyed him suspiciously and continued speaking.

"Like I was saying, nice man was Salazar Slytherin. He was a powerful wizard indeed. He was very proud, too. There were good reasons for whatever he did."

Before Ron could say anything Hermione covered his mouth with her hand. He hurtfully looked at her and then crossed his arms and stared on the ceiling. Harry gave me a "hurry up" kind of look. Hermione didn't look that hot either. The old man was getting on her nerves as well.

"It's very nice about Salazar, but I really have to go. We'll be late to our first day. We have classes today, remember?"

"I don't know! I never attended Hogwarts. I was just a friend of Salazar and a caretaker. Very well then, password."

"Thestral!" The portrait moved out of the way, like this night, reveling the round entrance to my common room.

"I'll see you in a few. I would invite you in, but I don't think you'll be welcomed the way you should."

"We don't want to go in!" Ron spat out.

"Speak for yourself!" Hermione shouted at him and entered behind me. "I'm coming with you."

"No way! You'll get into trouble! What if Snape is in there?"

"Don't worry Ron! Besides you heard what the hat said. If we'll be friends our powers will grow stronger. Furthermore, you got a chance to see their common room, and I haven't. I was in the bathroom covered in fur, so I think it is only fair to go and see what it is all about."

"And you believed it? What do you mean, 'it's only fair?'"

"The Sorting Hat doesn't talk just because it has nothing to do. You figure it out. Come one Natalie." I once again found myself in the gloominess of the common room. My spirit was slowly fainting. I wished I could go back into the warmth of the Griffindor tower where the red and yellow radiated heat. In my case it was silver and green that chilled me to the bone.

There was no one in. Everyone left to the Great Hall. I'm not blaming them; Hermione needed to stay unseen. I'm not sure why she came with me. I didn't wish to send her on her way; she did take me to her dormitory. We quickly raised up the stairs and into my room. My school robes had a green serpent pressed on the upper right corner. A Slytherin scarf and gloves lay upon my trunk. All the beds were empty except mine. A folded piece of parchment lay on my bed. I looked at Hermione, but she walked up to the window to see the view. I picked it up and unfolded it. My eyes met with the most exquisite handwriting that I came to see. Each later was of the same size under the same angle.

_" Professor Snape would like to see you in his class after your potion lesson is finished. He wasn't very happy about you not being in your bed. Just make a good alibi._

Lana"

"Who's Lana?" Hermione asked me. She came up so quietly that her voice drove me out of my shoes. "Sorry."

"I'm not sure who she is. I didn't have a chance to meet all of my roommates. I'm going to get it today."

"Don't be so blue! You might not have potions today."

"With my luck, I will." I pulled on the school robes, and we walked back to Harry and Ron.

"What took you so long?" Harry said very annoyed, as we walked to the Great Hall.

"The old man is insane! He told us stories of his life. It was horrible."

"Ron, don't be so dramatic. We're getting our classes today!" Hermione eagerly changed the subject. Harry and Ron rolled their eyes. "What? I'm happy about it!"

"I'm sure you are! Hermione don't you like doing anything else besides studying?"

"Of course I do! I hang around you, and you are enough adventures to last me a lifetime." She looked hurtful at Ron and walked before us all.

"Why are you so gloomy?" Harry asked me.

"I thought this school would be wonderful, but so far I have nothing but bad luck. Snape wants to talk to me. Some girl wrote to me that he was raging. I wonder what he'll do. I already have a detention."

"We all do." Ron said miserably.

"Don't worry about it! Snape screams, I know, but he can't do anything stupid. He can't kick you out of the school. You need to stay here under protection."

"Thanks Harry, but I rather wish for Snape to leave me alone." We finally entered the noise Great Hall; I waved them good-bye and walked up to my table. There were no place where I could sit so no one would talk to me. I hated to sit by Draco. I stopped to look for a free sit, and from a corner of my eye I saw a girl waving to me. With no better plan I walked up to her. She had long black hair and brown eyes. She looked Asian.

"Hi! I'm Lana!"

"Oh, hello. Thank you for the letter, now I have time to prepare."

"You are welcome. I didn't have a chance to speak to you yesterday. Mary said you were sleeping already, so I didn't bother you."

"How did Snape find out that I was out of bed?"

"I don't know," she shrugged her shoulders and took a bite out of a muffin, "he came very early in the morning. Thank God we were dressed already. He didn't even knock! He shouted at us when we said we had no idea of where you went. Mary said that she heard you leaving the dormitory late at night, but she thought you went to the lady's room. That is when Snape got really angry. He scared us half to death. He told me to tell you that he wants to see you, so that is what I did."

"What a psycho." I took a sip of pumpkin jus and looked at the teachers' table. All of them were chattering among one self. Snape was talking to Professor Dumbledore about something. He was probably talking about me sneaking off in the dead of night.

"He's not that bad. He actually cares about his students. We all like him, when he's in the good mood."

"Ya, I'm sure I'll love him."

"What is your career choice?"

"A Healer, you?"

"Me too! My mum was a Healer; she kind of inspired me."

"What about your dad?"

"I don't have a dad. He died when I was five, and my mum died last year."

"Sorry, I..."

"Don't worry about it, I'm dealing pretty well. They just found her dead. That day the ministry called my aunt and that's how I came to live with her."

"My parents are dead too, but they both died this summer."

"Sorry, it was tough the first couple of month, but afterwards it became easier."

"Ya, easier." We sat in silence thinking about our own problems when the hall was covered in owls that hooted in the air. A small envelope fell into my hands.

"Our schedules!" A small boy that set besides me shouted.

"Zip it!" Draco screamed at him. For a moment our eyes met, but I swiftly drew them away and open the envelope taking out a piece of parchment.

"Great!" I said irritated.

"What?"

"I have double potions today! I have to look as Snape's face for four hours and then talk to him."

"I can wait for you. All of our classes are the same, so I can wait for you."

"You'll do that?"

"Sure why not." I was surprised, I didn't think that Slytherin are capable to have real friends.

"Thanks."

"No problem, I'm glad that Griffindor have potions with us, too"

"Ok, are you sure that you're in the right house? How did you get to Slytherin?"

"Oh that little thing, I don't care for it. I have friends in Griffindor. My boyfriend is Griffindor too." Her cheeks turned a bit pink, and she lowered her eyes back to the parchment.

"You don't belong here."

"I must, if the hat put me here. It's never wrong!"

"Well, maybe we are its two big mistakes. Come on lets go."

"Oh, I promised Seamus that I'd meet him before class."

"That's ok, I'll see Harry and Ron, they have potions too."

"Ok, I'll see you later." She rose and disappeared into the crowd. I took another sip of my jus, and also rose to walk up to Harry and Ron.

"Going somewhere?"

"Well, aren't you a very observant boy. I'm glad that you can tell a person from sitting, standing, and going. What a great job!" I turned around and also disappeared in the crowd.

"What did Malfoy want?" Harry asked me as soon as I walked by.

"I don't know? I didn't stick around to find out."

"I guess Snape if killing you today."

"Don't remind me about it. Where's Hermione?"

"Oh, she left to Care of Magical Creatures. She wished you best of luck."

"Remind me to thank her, if I get a chance."

"Sure! Ron told me to go on. Hermione forgot her book here, so he went to give it to her."

"Ok, what is on your schedule anyways?"

"I have double potions with Slytherin today, Charms with Slytherin and Defense against the Dark Arts with Ravenclaw tomorrow. Lets see, I have Double Transfiguration with Slytherin on Wednesday, Defense and Charms on Thursday, and potions with Transfiguration on Friday."

"Well, I'm not going to see you on Friday."

"Why?"

"I have Herbology with Hufflepuff and then Trans...oh I'm going to see you, never mind." We finally reached the dungeon where Snape's class was taking place. It was filled with many little bottles; packets with colored grass, different papers, and other things with which I was not familiar.

"Ron's here already. Do you want to sit with us?"

"No that's ok; I'll sit behind you with a friend." He looked at Lana that was waving to me.

"Ok, Glad you got some friends."

"Ya me too." I sat comfortably besides her and took out a piece of parchment, ink, and a quill.

"We'll have fun in this class!" She said excitedly.

"You like potions?"

"I love them. It's my favorite subject of all!" Suddenly the door to the dungeon flew open with a loud bang on the stone wall and immediately shut itself with another loud bang. The loud talking fell to silence, and all eyes were concentrated on Professor Snape.

"This is your most important and the most difficult potion class that you'll have through your entire years of school. There are many new ingredients, strategies, and ways to make mistakes." Harry whispered something to Ron, and Ron began to snigger.

"Did I say something funny, Mr. Weasley?"

"No sir."

"Have Mr. Potter perhaps?"

"No sir." Ron shook his head.

"Well, share it with the class! Come on, Mr. Weasley, don't be shy. It must have been important if you decided to talk about it in the same time as I was talking. I see that my class needs a good laugh, so Mr. Weasley enlighten us. Better of, Mr. Potter, since you started this whole conversation lets hear what you had to say to Mr. Weasley." Draco was laughing his head off along with his two cronies.

"I have nothing to say sir."

"Good, twenty points will be taken from Griffindor. Did I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir."

"As I was saying, we will be concentrating on a single potion for weeks at times. They are not easy to make and are time consuming. You will copy the procedures onto your paper, and you'll begin the potion today. Get on it." He waved his wand before the black bored and the invisibility potion's ingredients and procedures became clear upon it.

I was swiftly writing closely observing Snape in the same time. From time to time I felt someone looking at me, but I never caught who it was. The moment I rose my eyes all others were fallen to their parchment.

"I would like you to begin the potion immediately after you finish."

The four boring hours passed uneventfully. Harry and Ron were always the center of attention thanks to Snape, and all others laughed at Professor Snape's remarks. Finally the bell rang, and we were free for the day, some of us more then others.

"Miss Weasley, I would like to have a word with you."

"Ok, I'll see you guys in the Great Hall."

"You don't want us to wait?"

"Thanks, Ron, but I think it would be better if you don't hear the whole thing."

"You'll tell us?"

"Of course! Lana, you don't have to wait. I got to go somewhere afterwards."

"Ok, I'll see ya then." I came up to Professor Snape and patiently waited for my horrible fortune.

"Miss Weasley, there are some rules that every student in this school has to follow." He began looking me strait in the eyes. "I don't know what went on in your other school, but it is not tolerable here."

"I'm sorry professor, but what are you talking about?"

"I'm saying that if it is after your curfew, then you should not take the matter into

your own hands and do whatever you wish." His voice slowly began to rise.

"I still do not understand."

"Are you denying the fact that you were out of bed last night, and had not returned to it until this morning?" He jumped off his sit screaming at me.

"I was out of bed during the night, but just because I had to use the lady's room. I hope that is not against the rules."

"Don't you be cocky with me. At what time did you return?"

"Right away sir. This morning I woke up rather early, and I went to the Quidditch stadium to see what it was like. I don't know why you assumed that I was absent from my dormitory for a period of this whole night." Suddenly I felt a tickling sensation in my head, as if a flow of warmth passed through it. I became a little woozy. My vision became blurry. I could hardly stand in place. A picture of me entering the bathroom last night flashed before me. I saw a shadow that came from Hermione, but it was difficult to say. I immediately blocked the thought out of my mind and pushed Snape out of it as well. I shoved him back with such a force that I found myself in a small dark room with a small boy sitting in the corner. I heard loud screams somewhere near. I heard glass breaking and a woman cursing someone. The picture changed and I saw a group of Death Eaters. They were before the fire that burned green, not far away stood a creature with red eyes and whispered something. He was looking strait at me. I tried to free myself from Snape's mind, but I couldn't. I heard myself scream, and I painfully fell to the floor hitting the desks with my left side. For a while I couldn't understand where I was. My body was shaking and my head was aching. I was out of breath. I raised my eyes and Snape's met them. He looked rather worried. He was also out of breath, but he reached for me to help me get up. As I rose to my feet the pain in my chest was so severe that I almost fell.

"Are you all right?"

"Professor Snape, I would advise you to not snoop around my mind in the future. Like you I can very well block people out and like you I can snoop as well; however, you do not see me doing so. Do you have anymore questions that you would like to address to me?" It was more difficult to breath as time went on. I was feeling nauseous.

"You are free to go. I would advise you to go to the Hospital Wing. Let me help you."

"No thank you. I'll make it on my own. I hope you'll excuse my absence from the detention that I was supposed to serve today." I turned around and grabbed my bag. It was amazing that I could walk out from the dungeon as if nothing happened; however, with each step I felt more lack of air. My vision was blurring with each passing second. I leaned on the wall to take a rest.

"Huh, it's you again! Did Professor Snape give you a nice punishment for sneaking around?"

A/N

Sorry that I keep you guys waiting. There are so many things going on that I have no time. School started and I came across some problems. I hope to update sooner, but I can't promise anything.

Cheers! 


	17. Soft

****

Chapter 16

Soft

Draco was slowly moving towards me. I could hardly see him. My knees slowly gave way, and I began to slide down the wall. I heard someone running towards me. The voice that spoke to me was so soft and pleasant that I didn't want it to leave me. I felt a cold hand upon my cheeks.

"Hey what's wrong with you? Natalie? Natalie?" I felt as if I was flying. Someone was carrying me, but I couldn't see whom. I tried to turn but a sharp pain spread upon my entire body. I couldn't hold out a shout. The pace quickened almost to a run.

"Mr. Malfoy what are you doing here?" A high pitched voice reached my ears. It rang through my head.

"She's hurt." I felt the soft pillow under my head, and his hand slowly slipped away from under me.

"Mr. Malfoy I would like you to leave!"

"But..."

"No buts Mr. Malfoy. You should go." I heard the heavy doors closing and scratching of shoes on the stone floor. I was once again in the desert with a man walking away from me. I saw the sand rising over him and a loud screech escaped my lips.

My eyes flew open. It was dark and quiet. I looked around the room. There was no one there.

"Hello?" I asked. My voice was raspy. I tried to get up, but the pain that penetrated my body made me change my mind. Suddenly the door squealed open. I pretended as if I was asleep, but to my surprise there was no one there. I raised to my elbows and looked around.

"Glad you're awake." Someone whispered and Harry, Ron, and Hermione appeared before me.

"You mastered the invisibility potion already? For how long was I out?"

"It's just my old clock. You've been out since yesterday. No one is allowed to visit you until you're awake."

"We had to see you," said Hermione.

"What happened anyways?" Ron looked at me worried.

"Did Snape do something to you?"

"It's like you said Harry; Snape wouldn't do anything stupid. Remember?" Harry's eyes flashed with rage.

"What did he do? I'm going to kill him."

"Don't worry about it; he didn't hurt me intentionally. He tried to read my mind to find out the truth about what happened last night, and where I was. I didn't want him to because I lied to him anyways, so I blocked my mind pushing him out of it. Somehow I ended up in his, he also pushed me out and I fell to the floor. I think I broke my ribs."

"You could block him out?"

"Ya, I learned...I forgot the name! Well, I learned it from the neighbor. He was this old guy that didn't have any kids. I wanted to help him out. He was really great. He taught me everything I know about magic." It was kind of painful to speak. I was lacing air and my breathing was irregular. Hermione closely observed me, and it was as if she read my mind.

"I think we should go back," she said and grabbed the invisibility cloak.

"Why?" Harry and Ron protested.

"Let her rest! Can't you see that she wants to be alone? Seriously, you two need to get some open eye and observe people more carefully. Now come on!" Within moment they disappeared and left the chamber. I once again found myself enveloped in the darkness that slowly creped into me. I was getting scared and wanted to go back to sleep, but I couldn't. My mind was wide-awake and had many things to work out. The chaotic mess within my head did not let me concentrate on a single thought, so I lay staring into the white ceiling that seemed to flow above me.

"Did you hear about Professor Snape?"

"Can you imagine such a thing?"

"How terrible! He was my favorite teacher!"

"Oh come on it can't be true!"

"What are you talking about? Are you saying that the potion professor raised his hand on a student? Who do you think you're talking with? I'm not a fool!"

"That's what I heard."

"Give me a brake!"

"No way!"

"You're joking?"

"Stop your foolishness!"

"Professor Snape attacked a student!"

"He's probably a Death Eater!"

The Great Hall was full of such remarks. Everyone knew about the attack in the potion's class, but no one could believe that the attacker was Professor Snape. Harry, Hermione, and Ron sat at the Griffindor table and gloomily looked into their plates.

"This is impossible!" Hermione said angrily. "How could Malfoy say such a thing?"

"I just want to beat the crap out of him!" Ron exclaimed.

"It won't be pretty!" Harry remarked. "I think that Malfoy had nothing to do with this. He didn't tell anyone about anything."

"Why do you think that?" Hermione asked a bit puzzled.

"Because he would never admit that he helped Natalie get into the Hospital Wing. He's not a sentimental guy, even if he was he would not tell it to anyone."

"You're right! But who can it be?"

"There must have been someone else in that room."

"Ya but who?"

"Come on you guys we have potions right now. Maybe we'll get something out of it." Ron said grabbing his books and rising up.

"Oh look it's the red head, scar face, and a mudblood! What a wonderful combination!" Malfoy was standing before the trio arms crossed, smirking.

"Get lost Malfoy!" Ron spat out. His hair was standing on ends, his fingers were tightly held in a fist, and his face became red.

"Leave him be!" Hermione whispered and reached for his hand. She slowly opened his fingers and slipped her hand within his, carefully turning him away from the blond boy.

"She's right Ron. We better go." Malfoy reached for Harry's robes and held him very close to his face.

"I better not hear that you're spreading rumors about Natalie and me! I don't associate myself with such filth as the Weasleys." He whispered through clenched teeth.

"Then you have nothing to worry about!" Harry got free from Malfoy's hold and turned to his friends slowly heading to the dungeon.

"What did he say?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Nothing. Now, I'm positive he didn't say anything."


End file.
